Update 1:45 p.m. 4-21-23: As of Friday morning, residents can use the water to wash clothes and dishes and bathe but still cannot drink it without boiling. See end of story for other updates.
Original Story:
A precautionary boil water notice has been issued to residents of Northwest Harris County by water infrastructure utility company, Inframark, after the company detected a water outage caused by a main line break Thursday evening.
All areas served by Harris County Utility District 16 water system are placed under this temporary order, which includes the neighborhoods of Sycamore Bend, Imperial Plaza, Imperial Green, Meadowview Farms and a portion of Northridge Park.
The company sent a crew out that is actively working to repair the break; however, there is no anticipated timeline to when these repairs will be completed and water pressure will be restored, said the company.
The boil water notice will not be lifted until this pressure is restored.
During boil water notices, residents are advised to boil all tap water that is consumed or used for at least two minutes. This includes water that is cooked with and used to bath or brush your teeth. Residents are also encouraged to use any bottled water they have or can purchase during the duration of the notice.
Late last year, the city of Houston was put under a boil water notice by the city’s Public Works Department that lasted for several days after a power outage that occurred at the East Water Purification Plant.
During this outage, the water pressure dropped from The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality’s requirement of a minimum of 20 PSI – making it unfit for consumption or use without boiling. Once the pressure was restored, the order was lifted, and residents were encouraged to flush their systems and return to using the tap water normally.
Update:
Effective Friday, a precautionary boil water notice placed on parts of North Harris County Thursday by water infrastructure utility company Inframark remains in effect, however residents can now use the water – just not consume it.
Water was restored early Friday morning to neighborhoods in Harris County Utility District 16, after a main line break caused an outage that put the boil water notice into effect.
According to Todd Burrer, vice president of Inframark, crew members worked on the repair for more than 24 hours to restore water to about 2,000 homes that were affected by the outage.
“This was an unplanned outage, it was a failure of a pipe that was located four feet below the ground, and we know what an inconvenience this is to the general public,” Burrer said. “We hate when things like this happen, and we try to get them repaired as soon as we can.”
Although residents had no access to running water, the state still required the company to issue the boil water notice.
Burrer said residents can now use the water to wash clothes and dishes and bathe; however, the notice is still under order as the company has to wait for third-party testing of the water to ensure it is safe for consumption.
It is not known when they will receive these test results, however Burrer said they may expect to see them as early as Saturday morning. The notice will remain until the company confirms that the water is clear of contaminants, he said.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
