"The Water Supply" from the GIRL SCOUT HANDBOOK 1920

"In the country every home has a private water supply and takes pains to guard it.  In the city there is a common water supply and everyone is responsible for keeping it pure.  Where does the water come from that supplies your city or town?  How is it kept clean?  Who takes care of it?.... Girl Scouts will interest themselves in municipal or neighborhood housekeeping, for that is a responsibility which all share together"....

50-60% of the drinking water for El Paso now comes from surface water (the river: the Rio Grande) from mid-March to mid-October.  This water for the USA is diverted from the Rio Grande at the American Dam next to ASARCO.  The water for the USA (and El Paso drinking) then travels through the 70+year-old cracked upper American canal right past the smelter and railroad.   2.9 miles below the ASARCO smelter, the U.R. WTP (canal street Water Treatment Plant) pulls water out of the canal, treats it, pumps it up the mountain and mixes/distributes it throughout the city.