Local Impact of Fort Bliss
As of 2005, the base contributed about $1.7 billion to the economy of Central El Paso and Northeast El Paso, and many businesses in the region serve the post's troops. When troops are transferred to other posts or called up for service overseas, the economic fallout can be felt throughout the city. Following the departure of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in 1995, many businesses in the Central and Northeast parts of the city closed or moved. Conversely, the expected influx of troops from the 1st Armored Division has led to a housing and schools construction boom in the Central and Northeast areas of El Paso.
Fort Bliss has also assisted El Paso during local disasters. In 1897, and again in 1925, the fort provided food and housing to those displaced by flood waters. Following the 2006 flooding Fort Bliss dispatched troops to the flood-affected areas to help with cleanup, to monitor and secure the Rio Grande, and to tow vehicles stuck in standing water to safety.
As of July 2010, electric power consumption at Fort Bliss had been reduced by three megawatts as the base continues to work towards becoming a "net zero" energy installation.
A joint study by Fort Bliss and El Paso-area city governments found that desalination was a viable method for increasing El Paso's water supply by 25%. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant, on Montana Avenue, is located on Fort Bliss property, and desalinates the groundwater of the Hueco Bolson for use by El Paso and Fort Bliss. This reverse-osmosis plant protects the fresh groundwater supplies from invasion by more brackish water. This plant is currently the largest non-seawater desalination plant in the world.
Read more about this topic: Fort Bliss
Famous quotes containing the words local, impact, fort and/or bliss:
“While it may not heighten our sympathy, wit widens our horizons by its flashes, revealing remote hidden affiliations and drawing laughter from far afield; humor, in contrast, strikes up fellow feeling, and though it does not leap so much across time and space, enriches our insight into the universal in familiar things, lending it a local habitation and a name.”
—Marie Collins Swabey. Comic Laughter, ch. 5, Yale University Press (1961)
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government is reduced to a few marines at Fort Independence. If a man neglects to read the Daily Times, government will go down on its knees to him, for this is the only treason these days.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Frau Stöhr ... began to talk about how fascinating it was to cough.... Sneezing was much the same thing. You kept on wanting to sneeze until you simply couldn’t stand it any longer; you looked as if you were tipsy; you drew a couple of breaths, then out it came, and you forgot everything else in the bliss of the sensation. Sometimes the explosion repeated itself two or three times. That was the sort of pleasure life gave you free of charge.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)