SAWS officials announce boiling water notice

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Water System customers must boil their water before drinking it until further notice.

That recommendation came from SAWS president and CEO Robert Puente at Wednesday’s emergency meeting.

An official boiling water notice was expected to be issued later on Wednesday.

Puente said the boiling water message stems from “an abundance of caution” due to low water pressure and said only water used for drinking should be boiled. Puente said tap water is safe to use for hand washing and bathing.

“It’s safe to say we will be dealing with this situation for days rather than hours,” said Puente. “This situation is likely to get worse and more pipes on private property will break, and we will have a more difficult problem maintaining the pressure.”

Puente said that as long as there are power cuts, there will be water problems.

SAWS officials said most of the disturbances are concentrated in the far north side of the city or on the far south side. He said that while there are minor water outages in the middle of the city, low water pressure was a bigger problem for most customers.

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He also said the lack of power is not the only problem for water customers right now. He said that because there are so many broken pipes in the city, an enormous amount of water leaks and does not reach customers. He said the city uses more water because of leaks than on some of our hottest summer days.

District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez asked SAWS officials how can people be expected to boil water without electricity.

Puente said SAWS officials would soon meet with HEB to coordinate a way to get water for residents who need it.

Steve Clouse. SAWS Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer told councilors that CPS Energy had asked SAWS to move their pumping stations off “critical circuits” when ERCOT’s rollout began. He said that’s why SAWS pumps lost power this week.

“What we fall under is probably a once in a generation, a once in a lifetime kind of storm,” said Puente. “SAWS is the largest consumer of our energy and CPS Energy is the largest water consumer in our community. So we coordinated with each other. We’ve worked together and tried to let each other know what’s going on and the best way to save power and conserve energy. “

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Puente asked customers to be patient and said he recognized that many customers have tried to call and cannot get through.

“Our customer service representatives have been working from home because of the COVID pandemic, but unfortunately now their own homes have no power,” said Puente. “They don’t have it or they don’t have internet services. So that makes us unable to answer the phones and get answers from the public and our community. “

Puente said this week has been a learning experience.

“We will use this particular emergency to re-evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Whether it’s our equipment, our employees, our responses, our shipping, our communications, everything will be something we’ll look at and improve for the promise I make to all of you, ”said Puente.

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