In addition to the order for more than 200,000 Fort Worth residents to boil water due to a power outage at a treatment plant, the Fort Worth Water Department also wants to quell rumors that it will soon shut off water to the city because “ pipes burst. ” , ”One viewer told NBC 5.
“We will not shut off the water to prevent major outages, but we will turn off the water to fix major outages,” said spokeswoman Mary Gugliuzza. “We’re seeing more breaks, so people will experience temporary outages” in troubled areas.
Gugliuzza says there are about two dozen active breaks, mainly in Loop 820, where there are older cast iron pipes. Repairs are taking place, but can be slower than normal to protect crews working in cold temperatures.
“We encourage people to have water available in case of a main break,” she said. Water re-emphasizing is turned off only to restore a main pause.
As the water department responds to current outages, it is also trying to thaw equipment to get the Eagle Mountain Water Plant back up and running as soon as possible.
A power outage at the factory forced the city to extend a boiling water notice to a total of 212,000 Fort Worth residents. Nine citations purchasing drinking water from Fort Worth – Haslet, Keller, Lake Worth, Northlake, Roanoke, Saginaw, Southlake, Trophy Club and Westlake – have been notified.
“The good news is that we now have power in all our processing plants, but the challenge is that everything is frozen,” said Gugliuzza, explaining that several plants were affected by power outages that started early Monday morning. “We were struggling to keep different parts of the system running, but unfortunately we couldn’t do that with the most northerly parts of the system.”
Gugliuzza said that without power and heat, valves and overhead controls for some pumping stations were simply frozen when the temperature plummeted. The problem wasn’t the pipes, she said.
In a post on social media, the water department acknowledged that power outages mean some residents cannot boil water.
“We know that boiling water is no use if customers don’t have water. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has specific language required for these notifications that we must use, and that’s the reason for the notification,” the post said.
A plan to set up locations to distribute bottled water to residents also ran into problems, the water department also explained in the post.
“We expected them to be operational today, but this morning we learned that our emergency bottled water supplier cannot open its factory. The water company is looking for alternative sources. We will announce the locations and times once we have secured a supply. . “
In a message to residents, the city said, “When water pressure is restored, affected customers should expect to receive a notification about water boiling until at least late Wednesday. The utility will send another message once it has verified. that the water is safe. “
In the meantime, customers with questions can call water customer service at 817-392-4477 or send an email to [email protected].