The San Antonio-headquartered North American Development Bank recently kicked off two projects designed to provide new drinking water and wastewater collection near Vinton, about 25 miles north of El Paso and 12 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The two projects, costing more than $20 million, will close down obsolete on-site septic systems. The projects are made possible in part by $6.5 million in grants from the Border Environment Infrastructure Fund, which is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and administered by NADBank. The U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development and the Texas Water Development Board also provided some funding.
One project, a new drinking water system with a cost of $7.2 million, will install new water distribution lines, a regional storage tank and meters. It will also replace small water systems to offer safe water sources to more than 360 households by removing arsenic and other toxins in the water supply. Roughly 90% of the community will be connected to the new drinking water system, according to a release from the bank.
The second project, a new wastewater collection system costing $13.3 million, will provide service for the first time to more than 500 existing homes. The project will halt the flow of 275,000 gallons a day of untreated or poorly treated wastewater from residential, commercial and industrial sources. The collection system infrastructure will be owned by city of Vinton.
NADBank Managing Director Calixto Mateos-Hanel said the two projects "represent the joint efforts of local, state, and federal entities working together to provide the required funding to make possible access to quality water and wastewater services to communities such as Vinton.”
NADBank was established in 1994 during North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations with an intent to develop and finance environmental infrastructure on the U.S.-Mexico border. It finances loans and grants for projects up to 62 miles into the United States or 186 miles into Mexico, with structures owned and governed equally by both countries.
