212,000 North Fort Worth residents told to boil water after outages at treatment plants
More than 210,000 residents of North Fort Worth are being told to boil their water following power outages at water treatment plants.
Nine cites that buy drinking water from Fort Worth – Haslet, Keller, Lake Worth, Northlake, Roanoke, Saginaw, Southlake, Trophy Club and Westlake – also have been notified, according to a City of Fort Worth news release.
The Eagle Mountain water plant and raw water pump station at 6801 Bowman Roberts Road went without power during the day Monday amid rolling blackouts across the city and the state. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced the blackouts Monday as it declared a statewide emergency, with more residents using more energy in response to below-freezing temperatures.
The initial boil water notice Monday impacted around 100,000 residents of North Fort Worth. The city extended that early Tuesday to the entire northern third of the city, impacting a total of 212,000 residents. The general area affected is bounded on the west by the City of River Oaks, Lake Worth and Eagle Mountain Lake. The southern boundary is almost to Northside Drive. The eastern boundary is the city limits.
The Consumer Health Division of Fort Worth’ s Code Compliance Department told restaurant in the affected area were told to close.
Power was restored to the Eagle Mountain plant and raw pump station Monday night, officials said in a news release, and crews were working to defrost equipment to get the plant back in service.
But there were outages at numerous other treatment plants across the Fort Worth system due to the blackouts, officials said. The Westside Treatment Plant went offline repeatedly Monday because of rolling blackouts, said Mary Gugliuzza, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Water Department. The Holly Treatment Plant in downtown also lost power at one point and several pump stations have outages, she said.
“When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, the public water system officials will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking water or human consumption purposes,” the city said.
Once pressure is restored the system, residents may have water again but they should continue to boil it. When the treatment plant is operational the city must test water quality throughout the system, Gugliuzza, which could take 24 hours.
Water should be boiled before use, including when drinking, brushing teeth and for cooking and hand and face washing. This helps kill harmful bacteria and microbes.
Once the water reaches a boil, it should continue boiling for two minutes.
The boil notice comes as many across the city went without electricity. Those unable to boil water are being encouraged to buy bottled water.
Gugliuzza said the department is working to set up water bottle distribution centers, but details are still being coordinated. The city typically receives bottled water from a private contractor that was closed Tuesday morning, but Gugliuzza officials were working on other options.
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 6:37 PM.
