The New Mexico State Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a $1.2 million fine as part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed by municipal water utility El Paso Water.

The fine was imposed in June 2022 by the New Mexico State Department of Environmental Protection for alleged environmental violations related to El Paso Water’s discharge of wastewater into the Rio Grande in 2021. The wastewater discharge was caused by breaks in sewer lines in west El Paso.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in December 2022, El Paso Water denied New Mexico’s allegations that the utility violated the state’s environmental laws and argued that New Mexico’s environmental regulators had no jurisdiction in the matter because the discharge occurred in Texas.

U.S. District Court Judge David Briones issued an order on August 6, at the request of both agencies, dismissing the lawsuit and rejecting all claims. El Paso Water authorities announced on August 9 that the fine had been withdrawn.

As part of the settlement, El Paso Water will continue to provide the New Mexico State Department of Environmental Protection with information, documents and materials related to the wastewater discharge, the utility said in a press release.

El Paso Water was also fined $2.01 million by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2023 for wastewater discharge.

However, the commission agreed to allow El Paso Water to use the money from the fine to pay the estimated $7 million bill for cleaning up the wastewater discharges.

Frontera Force’s sewer lines ruptured in several locations in West El Paso in August 2021 while the utility was in the middle of a three-phase project to replace the corroded lines.

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The utility concluded that diverting the untreated wastewater into the Rio Grande near Doniphan Drive was the best way to keep the wastewater away from homes and businesses.

The wastewater diversion took place from August 2021 to January 2022, when much of the sewer line replacement project was completed.

The utility’s environmental monitoring has found no lasting environmental problems from the wastewater discharge into the Rio Grande, a utility official said.

Vic Kolenc can be reached at 915-546-6421; [email protected]; @vickolenc on Twitternow known as X.

This article originally appeared in the El Paso Times: El Paso Waters $1.2 million fine in New Mexico dropped in legal settlement