Squeezed to find water for future growth, El Paso Water in 2016 ramped up purchases of large tracts of the land in Dell City, much of that ranches and farmland. The utility’s 70,400 acres of so-called “water ranches” access the sprawling Bone Spring-Victorio Peak aquifer that extends for 700 miles underneath southern New Mexico and West Texas. The utility has spent $222 million on 20 properties in Dell City, which is about an hour’s drive east of El Paso.
