El Paso Water worker's death at Lower Valley sewage plant under investigation
Information has yet to be released on what caused an El Paso Water worker to die Friday afternoon at the city-operated utility’s sewage plant in the Lower Valley.
The El Paso Police Department and El Paso Water are investigating the death.
An El Paso Fire Department rescue team got the man out of a water tank where he was trapped, Enrique Duenas-Aguilar, a department spokesperson, said in an email. He was dead when the rescue team retrieved him, he said.
Jordan Haynesworth, 34, a utility plant senior technician, died “following an incident” at the Roberto Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to a statement released by the utility Monday afternoon.
Major upgrades and expansion are ongoing at the Bustamante plant, but the incident did not occur in the construction area, Denise Parra, a utility spokesperson, said in an email.
No other information about the incident was released.
Haynesworth, who was recently promoted, worked for the utility almost four years, and “was a valued member of the Bustamante Plant team,” according to the utility's statement.
“Our heart goes out to the employee’s family during this difficult time,” according to another statement El Paso Water released Friday afternoon when the death was first reported.
Police Sgt. Robert Gomez said Monday that police are investigating the death, and no other information is being released.
“We investigate every death,” he said.
The U.S. Occupational and Health Safety Administration, or OSHA, does not investigate deaths at work sites operated by a city government agency because those sites are outside OSHA’s jurisdiction, Juan Rodriguez, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor’s regional office in Dallas, said in an email. OSHA is part of the Labor Department.
The El Paso Fire Department was called to the Bustamante plant about 2 p.m., Friday, with a report of a person trapped in a confined space, Duenas-Aguilar said.
After the man was taken out of a water tank, “a death on the scene was declared and law enforcement contacted,” he said.
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The Bustamante plant, in operation for 32 years, is located at 10001 Pan American Drive, next to the United States-Mexico border, in the Socorro area.
The plant can treat up to 39 million gallons of sewage daily. The cleaned wastewater is released into the Riverside Canal for downstream irrigation and also feeds the next-door Rio Bosque Wetlands Preserve.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
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This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Water worker's death at sewage plant being investigated
