FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2001
CONTACT: Lisette Mondello
SENATOR HUTCHISON SECURES $1.8 MILLION
FOR DESALINATION
AT FORT BLISS
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that includes $1.8 million requested by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for Fort Bliss to begin designing a desalination plant to help extract salt from the water of the Hueco Bolson Aqiufer.
The Fort is located over the deepest portion of the Hueco Bolson, which provides water for the installation, as well as the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico.
"Fort Bliss needs these funds to properly manage the remaining fresh water in the Hueco Bolson," Senator Hutchison said. "We want to ensure that the base and the local cities have an adequate and ready supply of water well into the future."
The funds, which were passed as part of the fiscal year 2002 military construction appropriations bill, will be used to determine the best location and begin environmental studies for the proposed desalination plant.
Senator Hutchison is the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee's military construction subcommittee.
H.R. 2904, the Military Construction Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002, passed the Senate 97-0.
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