Boil water notice for the entire city of Houston...SMH (Abbott: home, schools)

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by WRM20

It's no big deal. Water pressure fell below the regulatory minimum this morning, and the boil water notice was required by law/regulation. There is no need to worry about the water.

The pressure fell during a power outage.

Science disagrees with your statement

Why Does Low Pressure Trigger A Boil Water Notice?
The pipes that bring the water around the city and eventually to your faucets are old and have been underground for decades. Many of these pipes have small cracks in them that leak water. As long as the pressure in the pipes remains sufficiently high, any water leakage in these cracks will be the water inside the pipes being forced out due to the pressure. However, if the water pressure in the pipes dips too low, then ground water from outside the pipe can seep into it for these same cracks. This ground water has not been filtered or treated and can be contaminated with all sorts of things from bacteria and spores to gasoline and pesticides.

[gwarnecke]

A power outage seems like a pretty poor reason for a treatment plant going offline. Don't these sort of critical facilities have backup generators?

I'm in the Memorial Villages and our city has clarified that we are not under a water boil notice, which surprises me because I understood that we source our water from both our own wells and CoH. Maybe we only pull from CoH during periods of higher water demand (ie the summer months)? Does anyone know for sure how these CoH water tie-ins are treated? Just curious.

[CastletonSnob1]

A lot of people on Twitter are saying that Texans deserve this for voting for Abbott.

I'm no fan of Abbott, and yes, this happened because of the power grid that Abbott hasn't fixed, but he had nothing to do with the fact that the water plant was having problems at 10:30 AM, but the city officials didn't put out a notice until 7:30 PM.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by CastletonSnob1

A lot of people on Twitter are saying that Texans deserve this for voting for Abbott.

I'm no fan of Abbott, and yes, this happened because of the power grid that Abbott hasn't fixed, but he had nothing to do with the fact that the water plant was having problems at 10:30 AM, but the city officials didn't put out a notice until 7:30 PM.

Yeah, some explanations are definitely needed there, and probably a few folks need to be fired.

It sounds like the water pressure dropped for less than a minute, so probably the water is fine, but I'm not sure whether I trust anyone enough at this point to take chances.

[SanJac]

Originally Posted by CastletonSnob1

A lot of people on Twitter are saying that Texans deserve this for voting for Abbott.

I'm no fan of Abbott, and yes, this happened because of the power grid that Abbott hasn't fixed, but he had nothing to do with the fact that the water plant was having problems at 10:30 AM, but the city officials didn't put out a notice until 7:30 PM.

Seriously? People are so stupid to make this political.

It's city of Houston water for crying out loud!

[utche96]

Man, does the water treatment facility not have a backup generator for power failures? Seems like a really bad design if true.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Science disagrees with your statement

Why Does Low Pressure Trigger A Boil Water Notice?
The pipes that bring the water around the city and eventually to your faucets are old and have been underground for decades. Many of these pipes have small cracks in them that leak water. As long as the pressure in the pipes remains sufficiently high, any water leakage in these cracks will be the water inside the pipes being forced out due to the pressure. However, if the water pressure in the pipes dips too low, then ground water from outside the pipe can seep into it for these same cracks. This ground water has not been filtered or treated and can be contaminated with all sorts of things from bacteria and spores to gasoline and pesticides.

Amazing at what level people will stoop to make light of something in order to push an agenda ( whatever that might be).

[utche96]

Originally Posted by CastletonSnob1

A lot of people on Twitter are saying that Texans deserve this for voting for Abbott.

I'm no fan of Abbott, and yes, this happened because of the power grid that Abbott hasn't fixed, but he had nothing to do with the fact that the water plant was having problems at 10:30 AM, but the city officials didn't put out a notice until 7:30 PM.

Also, no critical utility should ever have a single point of failure. I remember the same thing happening during the deep freeze, and we found out later that the back-up generators were not left in warm standby as they should have been. By the time they needed the power it was too late. It took days for the treatment plant to get the power restored in that cold weather.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by CastletonSnob1

A lot of people on Twitter are saying that Texans deserve this for voting for Abbott.

I'm no fan of Abbott, and yes, this happened because of the power grid that Abbott hasn't fixed, but he had nothing to do with the fact that the water plant was having problems at 10:30 AM, but the city officials didn't put out a notice until 7:30 PM.

My understanding is a car hit a pole that was feeding the water plant. Has nothing to do with the infrastructure

https://fb.watch/h4ATrlp7km/?mibextid=qC1gEa

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by utche96

Man, does the water treatment facility not have a backup generator for power failures? Seems like a really bad design if true.

There is a backup generator, but it's not automatic.

From the Chronicle https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...-17614475.php:

Cause of power outage under investigation
The plant has backup power generators to help maintain water pressure in the event of an emergency, but they are not set to work automatically, Jones said. Since it does not appear weather was a factor in the outage, she said the city is investigating what caused it.

"We’re still investigating what caused the power outage and how long it lasted," she said.

Houston Water Director Yvonne Williams Forrest told KHOU Sunday night the water boil notice was a formality.

"The reason we're doing the boil water notice is the regulatory requirement. Our system maintained pressure, we never lost pressure fully, so there was never an opportunity for anything to enter our system. It just fell below the regulatory environments," she said. "Our system stayed pressurized, so there was no risk of anything overpressuring and entering the water system.