CITY WATER NOT ON UNTIL FRIDAY ... BOIL WATER NOTICE STILL IN EFFECT

Water Update from the City Manager:

Water is out and will remain out through today and tomorrow. 

Based on our current projections, water will not be available in the City until sometime Friday evening (Feb. 19th) at the earliest.  Not having water until Saturday is a very real possibility.

The reason for the delay is relatively simple, we have to completely refill our system, to operate it safely, and that refilling process takes a significant amount of time.  The reason it takes a significant amount of time is that we can only get a finite amount of water back into our tanks each hour---that is just the mechanics of how pumping water works.

I could really use your help to get the following information out to our customers:

(1) We will post on the City website when we are ready to begin making water available (www.cityofmexia.com)

(2) When we post that the water is back "on", not all customers will immediately have water.  Some customers meters will have been turned off because they have leaks.  Other customers will find out they have leaks when we turn the water on and we will have to turn their meter off.  Undiscovered leaks will put an immediate strain on the water supply.

(3) Everyone in the City should attempt to locate their water meter and know where it is.  There is a small brass knob in each water meter box.  Turning this knob perpendicular to the water line will turn off the water to the house.  We are putting this information out in case anyone has water running into their house when the water comes back on.  City crews will attempt to assist, but we only have a finite number of employees to service every request.

(4)  If customers are not willing to be proactive and make every effort to conserve water, we WILL RUN OUT OF WATER AGAIN.

(5) When the weather gets very warm starting on Saturday, water mains are going to break in the City.  This is simply a fact. As the ground unthaws, water lines will shift and break---this is unavoidable.  We will fix the leaks as quickly as we can but some customers will be out of water while the leak is repaired.

(6) We may do everything correctly inside the City, but if our water supply is interrupted/reduced for any reason during the recovery period we will run out of water again.  There is nothing the City Water Department can do in the case where we are unable to get an adequate supply of water into the City. That is simply a factual constraint of the system.

(7) Please be prepared for multiple outages of water over the next 5-7 days.  We will do everything we can to keep the water on but there are many elements of this process that can, and usually do, work against our efforts.

(8) Please remember we are still under a Boil Water Notice for the foreseeable future.

I realize the above paints a dire picture.  This is the reality of our current situation.

Sincerely,

Eric B. Garretty

City Manager - City of Mexia, TX