CityStories / City Profiles / Large Cities / El Paso, Texas
Population: 563,662
- Green space
- Water conservation
- The City of El Paso, Texas Official Website
Photo Credit: Paul Garland
El Paso, Texas
July 2010 Update: El Paso, Texas has been named a 2010 Smarter City for Energy. Read the article.
In March 2007, El Paso's City Council adopted an Open Space Master Plan with the proposal to link green space hubs in a system called a bionetwork, made up of the city's mountains, desert and Rio Grande river.
More than a hundred residents contributed their input to the plan. The city is also home to the country's largest urban park, Franklin Mountains State Park, covering 37 square miles, all within the city limits of El Paso.
El Paso, in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert with an annual rainfall of about 8.8 inches, increased its water supply by 25 percent with a desalination plant created to treat brackish water. With a concentrated water conservation plan, El Paso Water Utilities aims to reuse 15 percent of its wastewater by 2012 for park, golf course and grassland irrigation. Citizens have reduced individual water use every year for more than a decade.
El Paso recently released it's Livable City Sustainability Plan, which details the city's most recent conservation plans.
Credit Shira Golding/FlickrNew York and Connecticut families with school-age children can breathe a little easier. Earlier this year, Governor David Paterson signed...
Credit: Hectore/FlickrWith 302 days of unadulterated sun each year, it comes as no surprise that El Paso (aka “Sun City”), Texas is aggressively pursuing onsite solar...
Lighter colored strata revealed by the decline in Lake Mead's water levels. For more on Las Vegas, read the city profile. Credit: Loop_oh/FlickrFor recent visitors to...
Flooding and sewer overflow in West Haven, Connecticut. Credit: Christopher ZurcherThe impervious paving with which we are so familiar—the asphalt and concrete that...
El Paso Municipal Resources
Download the City of El Paso's Livable City Sustainability Plan (pdf) for the city's overall strategy to improve quality of life in El Paso.
The El Paso Solar Energy Association (EPSEA) supports the development of solar installations in West Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Mexico.
Visit the El Paso Department of Sustainability for information on local sustainabiltiy initiatives.
Porous Paving
The EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System site provides information about applicability, siting and design criteria.
Georgia's Department of Community Affairs has a page on best practices for porous paving.
Portland, Oregon's Bureau of Environmental Service pervious paving projects page.
City of Chicago's permeable paving site with many local examples.
San Francisco Parks Trust permeable landscape page.
Environmental Health Perspectives provides a good overview in "Paving Paradise: The Peril of Impermeable Surfaces."
NRDC's report Stormwater Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution considers a variety of responses implemented across the country.
Water Conservation
US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation: with a mission to "manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public" the bureau provides information about water levels in reservoirs throughout the West, updates on dams, powerplants and related projects and a library of water reclamation materials.
Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART program: Information on WaterSMART grants for water and energy conservation projects, basin studies with integrated management plans and water supply reviews and details on the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Southwest.
In Hot Water: Water Management Strategies to Weather the Effects of Global Warming (NRDC report)
Water Efficiency Saves Energy (NRDC report)
Las Vegas Water District conservation pages
Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNVA) conservation and rebates
Green Space: Pesticide Bans
Text of New York's Child Safe Playing Fields Act
Text of Connecticut's ban on pesticide use on school grounds
Learn More
El Paso Livable City Sustainability Plan (pdf)
El Paso Solar Energy Association (EPSEA)
El Paso Department of Sustainability
Switchboard: Cities Racing Against Global Warming
American Cities Get Smart about Energy
Minute, Morning, Month: Apply these water-saving measures in your yard or garden.
Minute, Morning, Month: Save water and reduce runoff. Install permeable pavement.
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