PALMVIEW – Officials say there is no timeline for how long residents living near Breyfogle Road and East Expressway 83 in Palmview will have to deal with an ongoing water-sewer project. 

CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned permission is needed from the court to finish the project.

The city of Palmview is in litigation with the Agua Special Utility District. According to the city, Agua SUD doesn't want them to finish the small, city-funded sewer project.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS has called and visited Agua SUD in person; they refuse to comment on the story.

Moesis Ramos lives in the neighborhood affected. He says the neighborhood used to be nice but that's not the case anymore.

We interviewed Ramos and his wife earlier this month. He wants the mess to be cleaned up.

Palmview Interim City Manager Leonardo Olivares tells us he wishes he had an answer. He says construction on the city sewer project was only supposed to take around 90 days.

He says right now, Agua SUD is working on their own $42.2 million sewage project for Palmview. This is separate from the project going on in Ramos's neighborhood.

Olivares tells us Agua SUD wants them to stop because the city doesn't have the rights from the state to do the water project.

The state issues licenses for geographical areas to cities or districts so they have exclusive service of water or wastewater. Olivares says they used to have the license.

"We don't have it anymore. Those were provided to La Joya Water Supply around the 90s or so, and then that was taken over by Agua SUD when they were established," Olivares explains.

For a couple years, Palmview worked on the smaller sewer project in an effort to expedite the process. Olivares says they planned to hand it over to Agua SUD at no cost once the sewer lines were laid and a lift station was built.

"What we're proposing is that the city would build and construct it, and the plan was to turn it over to them, kind of like a gift 'here's something you can use to, you know, help provide the service in that area.' And so that's why we embarked on this project," Olivares said.

Olivares says with a sewer in the area, national retailers and restaurants could move into the area and provide service to the community, as well as build a tax base for the school district, the city and the county.

For now, the area where the lift station should be is just a pile of dirt.