Mayor Turner in a press conference right now. Whether or not you like his politics, I think he’s a great communicator on issues like this.
I missed the very start of the press conference, but apparently two transformers tripped (the primary and the backup), cutting power to the distribution pumps.
16 (out of 35?) pressure sensors fell below the 20 psi limit, but 14 of those were below for less than 2 minutes. The other two sensors fell below 20 psi for 30 minutes before the pressure was restored. None of the lines completely lost pressure to allow infiltration and potential contamination. Also realize that there is residual disinfectant in the water lines that should minimize or eliminate any potential contaminants.
Very unlikely there was contamination but that will be borne out by the sampling. That will be finished around 3 am, but if there are bacteria, they’ll see growth earlier.
Even if there were contamination, it’s unlikely that contaminated water made it far, just due to travel time in the pipes. For the vast majority of the city this is just a giant annoyance, with no risk.
The boil water notice was mandated by TCEQ regulations, despite the minimal risks. Our water system is interconnected all across the city. Better to err on the side of caution.
I do think it was a huge failure in communication yesterday. The mayor should have been doing this last night. Folks should have been given the chance to understand the actual risks as soon as possible.
Houston is officially a 3rd world country.
OK. Sure.
If this were a Third World country, we never would have heard about any of this.
Instead, we went the opposite direction, were completely transparent (except for lag in communication) and inconvenienced a city of 2.3 million for two days out of an abundance of caution despite the miniscule risk. Better safe than sorry.
Not a Third World response
