City-wide boil water notice issued for Austin, Texas
Staff error caused the temporary shutdown of the city’s largest water treatment plant.
February 6, 2022 (updated February 10, 2022)
A city-wide boil water notice was issued for all Austin Water users Saturday night and is expected to last until at least Tuesday, according to city leaders.
Austin Water reports the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant, the utility provider’s largest water processing plant, is out of service due to “an internal treatment process issue.”
Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros said the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant had a treatment process “upset” that resulted in a spike in turbidity, which is the measurement of the water’s clarity.
“They’re essentially water factories,” Mr. Meszaros said in the Sunday news conference. “And sometimes in factories, you’ve got to stop the assembly line. And that’s where it was not properly stopped and corrected and it was allowed to carry through to the finished water and that’s just not appropriate.”
Mr. Meszaros said the failure had been caused by “errors from our operating staff at our Ullrich plant” and said an investigation was continuing. It was not immediately clear at what point the errors occurred or how many people were responsible.
The issue prompted a high level of “turbidity” and Austin Water made the decision to issue a boil water notice after consulting with The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) sets minimum water quality standards for public drinking water. One of these standards is a turbidity limit. Turbidity by itself has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may also indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. These symptoms can be particularly severe in people who are not as resistant to infections as most of the population.
Austin Water, failed to meet the minimum treatment technique requirements for turbidity. Specifically, the water system had a multiple barrier failure treatment technique violation (CFE >1.0 NTU and IFE >2.0 NTU) and combined filter effluent turbidity (CFE) readings above 5.0 NTU.
Turbidity is measured in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). These bottles show various turbidity levels. Source/USGS/ Usage: Public Domain.
Due to the nature and severity of this violation, the TCEQ required Austin Water to issue a public notice and to tell all our customers that they should boil their water prior to consumption.
Under TCEQ rules, public water systems must issue BWNs if any of these conditions occur:
Water outages.
Low distribution pressures (below 20 pounds per square inch).
Microbiological samples found to contain elevated E. coli levels.
Inadequate disinfectant residuals (0.2 mg/L free chlorine or 0.5 mg/L chloramines).
Elevated surface water turbidities such as clay, silt or algae.
Other conditions indicating drinking water supply has been compromised.
A Boil Water Notice (BWN) must be issued as soon as possible, but in no case later than 24 hours after the violation or condition occurs. When issuing BWNs, Public Water System (PWS) must use TCEQ mandatory language and methods of delivery.
Meszaros said that there have been no indications of contamination.
He acknowledged that the boil water notice likely was the result of “a staff operations issue” and “how we operate the plant.”
Austinites have become reluctantly familiar with boil-water notices. This is the City of Austin’s third boil water emergency in under four years. Last year a winter storm left nearly seven million Texans under a boil-water advisory.
Typically, boil water notices are not issued city-wide, they tend to be specific to a pressure zone, or a certain part of a distribution system. However, because the City of Austin’s water from its three plants ultimately mixes together when it leaves the plants and enters the distribution system, a city-wide boil order was required.
“I can assure you that this will not happen again,” City Manager Spencer Cronk said. “This has been incredibly frustrating.” Mayor Steve Adler also commented “This has been incredibly frustrating, and the city will keep everyone informed along the way.”
“Austin is the tops, but being able to provide safe drinking water, that should not be one of the challenges we have to solve,” said Natasha Harper-Madison, a city councilwoman. “It’s beyond frustrating to have to go through this kind of incident with this frequency.”
“Unfortunately, we’re getting pretty well-versed in how to protect our families,” said Paige Ellis, a city councilwoman who has called for a special meeting of the Council to look into circumstances at the Ullrich plant.
City Council Member Kathie Tovo, who last year helped lead an effort to audit the utility’s winter storm response, said Sunday that she expects a thorough debriefing on the latest problem.
“Certainly, I am committed to getting more information about what happened, how it could have been prevented and how we make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said. “I intend to hold the manager accountable for implementing any necessary changes as soon as possible and developing a communication process with the public and the council to provide people information they need when they need it.”
“There is so much we need to learn, and we will find out,” Council Member Leslie Pool said. “I expect we will know soon exactly what happened.”
The boil notice will be over once water samples show no quality issues and The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lifts the notice. Sampling began Monday and it takes 24 hours to receive the results, according to Austin Water.
Under TCEQ rules, a PWS shall not rescind a BWN until it has provided required compliance documentation to the TCEQ which shows that the PWS has met the following requirements:
Determine that water in their system does not pose an acute health risk.
Flush, disinfect affected areas or the entire distribution system.
Collect bacteriological samples marked “special” from representative locations throughout the system and analyzed by an accredited lab and found negative for total coliform organisms.
Return to normal operating parameters, including power restoration.
Maintain required water pressure levels (water distribution pressures greater than 20 psi are consistently maintained throughout the distribution system.
Maintain minimum disinfectant residual levels, (0.2 mg/L free chlorine or 0.5 mg/L total chlorine) in each finished water storage tank and throughout the distribution system.
No excessive turbidity. PWSs with surface water and groundwater under the influence of surface water sources only: water entering the distribution system has a turbidity level that is consistently maintained below 1.0 NTU.
A copy of the BWN must be submitted to the TCEQ within 24 hours of distribution. The initial BWN Certificate of Delivery, the Rescind Notice, and its Certificates of Delivery should be submitted to the TCEQ within 10 days of distribution to the public as proof of public notification.
The city, which has a population of about 960,000, has opened water distribution sites for the public. Local school districts ask students, staff to bring water to school amid boil notice.