One employee at Turf Auto Sales launched a boat into the water, like the company does every year.

"Every year for the past 23 years that I can remember," said Ernie Leyva, sales manager at Turf Auto, referring to the lake that forms on the street.

Leyva said it has to rain for only 20 minutes before the lake on McRae and Carnegie fills up. And every year vehicles stall trying to cross the lake. Vehicles that do get across only create a wave that shoves other cars parked on the street. The forced of the water pushed one parked Mercedes onto the sidewalk.

"As many times as I complained to the city, they tell me it's a state problem," said Leyva.

Storm water is supposed to travel through conduits that lead the water into a pond near Carnegie and Montana Avenue. The problem is the conduits are too narrow and water doesn't flow through them quickly enough, according to storm water officials. Another issue is trash and debris blocking the flow.

Storm Water Operations crews filled up several truckloads of trash and debris that was pulled out of the crates near the conduit owned by the state. What's different this year is that the Storm Water Department under El Paso Water Utilities is in charge of maintaining storm drains.

Storm Water Operations also called in for barricades to close off the street and a pumper truck to suck up the water. Those elements only put a bandage on the problem, but the city plans to fix the drainage system in the area by next year. However, some people don't believe it.

"There's a lot of passing the buck, and I get tax increases every year," said Leyva.

On Tuesday, City Council is scheduled to award a company with the project to fix the drainage system along Montana that creates the floods on McRae and Carnegie. It's a milestone for this area and the city, since they've been working on this project for years. One of the biggest delays was determining what belonged to the state or the city in order to get the proper clearance.