BURTON WATER WELL OUTAGE: BOIL NOTICE AND DROUGHT MEASURES STILL IN EFFECT, WATER SAMPLES SUBMITTED FOR TESTING

  

The City of Burton continues working toward fully restoring water service to residents and businesses after an equipment failure early Thursday in the city’s water well.

Burton Mayor Karen Buck provided an update this (Friday) morning on the work being done to bring the water supply back to normal levels, and the timeline for when the city’s drought contingency measures and boil water notice might be lifted. 

Buck said the city’s utility contractor was working late Thursday and continued this morning to flush lines.  Water samples have been sent off for testing, and Buck hopes to have the results back tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.  Once the city gets good results back, then it will send out notification to customers. 

Buck said the boil water notice was required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) because the city’s water lines and storage emptied when the well motor went out.  As for the Stage 5 – Emergency Drought Contingency Plan, she said it was put into effect to limit excess water usage in order to allow the city’s storage tanks to refill. 

The Burton City Council is preparing to vote Tuesday on issuing up to $678,000 in certificates of obligation to help fund the drilling of a new water well.  The funds will be used in tandem with a $593,800 grant obtained from the Texas General Land Office.

Buck said this situation was “a wake-up call” about the risk of using only one water well to support the city and said the new well will provide needed redundancy for Burton’s water supply.  She said this also allowed city officials to get a close-up look at the existing water well to see what went wrong and the type of routine maintenance it needs but has not been able to receive, due to being in constant operation.

Buck thanked the Washington County Office of Emergency Management, Texas Division of Emergency Management and TCEQ for their initial support and follow-up contact, as well as the training provided to elected officials to manage circumstances like what occurred on Thursday. 

Below is the full release from Mayor Buck on the water well outage:

Yesterday’s water well outage was not an event anyone anticipated, but it was a scenario that both the city and the residents have known might happen again.  The last time there was a water well outage was October 2022 when the city was dealing with a different type of repair over a much longer period of time.

Also, it is no secret that the city of Burton has lacked the necessary redundancy it has needed for its water supply for the last 12.9 years.  Water Well #4 is the only source/supply for water for the 280ish residents here in town; the 10 water customers in our ETJ (including one business); as well as the physical campus of Burton ISD that serves +/-500 students and staff.

Since May of 2023, we have established communication protocols among our community leaders – city council, school district, as well as county/state level emergency services – so that we can clearly share assessments in times of crisis.  The City of Burton also uses a reverse 911 system called Everbridge to communicate events to our residents.  Both systems were put to the test yesterday.  Both worked as they should have.  However, as with any real emergency, we also found ways that we need to tweak the protocols.  We are already working on those “the morning after” with the assistance of Bryan Ruemke, our Emergency Management Coordinator.

Mayor Buck is greatly appreciative of the initial and follow up contact that she has had with local and state agencies like Washington County Emergency Management, Texas Division of Emergency Management, and TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality).  Additionally, she is grateful for “the day after” follow up received from both Bryan Ruemke and Cody Neutzler (TDEM).  She expressed to each of them her gratitude for the required training for elected leaders offered by TDEM on behalf of FEMA as that training gave her the framework needed to “manage” so many moving parts during yesterday’s well outage.

Currently, the town remains on both a Boil Water Notice and on a State 5  EMERGENCY level in the city’s Drought Contingency Plan.  The Boil Water Notice is required by TCEQ because the water lines and water storage were all emptied when the well motor went out.  Our utility contractor and his crew were flushing lines until after dark last night.  Water samples were taken this morning and sent to the lab for testing.  We hope to have results back Saturday afternoon.  When the city receives those results – and they are good ones – THEN we will notify our water customers and lift the Boil Water Notice.

Secondary to the BWN is that EMERGENCY Drought Plan.  This was put in place to limit excess/extra water usage like lawn irrigation or car washing.  We knew that once the water was back in the water lines that we would have 280 residents who all want a shower, or flush toilets, or wash clothes.  That’s a huge pull on a system still trying to fill storage tanks and lines. So, we are just trying to slow the usage a bit so that our storage tanks have a chance to fill. This EMERGENCY Drought situation will probably be lifted about the same time as the BWN.  Again, the residents will receive notification when that happens. 

This morning, our utility contractor had a crew back out flushing lines – for color, removing air, and testing water quality.  So, if residents see water gushing from a pipe, especially near the end of a line, that is what they are doing.

Next week, the City Council is set to vote to issue $678,000 of bonds of obligation to use in combination with the $593,800 in funds in the form of a mitigation grant from the Texas General Land Office to drill Water Well #5 offering the town the security and redundancy it has needed for the last 12.9 years. 

If there was a “silver lining” to yesterday’s water well outage, it was a wake-up call about the hard-core reality of relying solely on one water well to provide water for our residents and the physical plant of the school district.  Another “silver lining” was that we got a good, hard look at Water Well #4.  We were able to replace the motor that went out, replace the wiring that was damaged when fuses blew, check the pipes down in the well, and see for ourselves the type of “regular” maintenance that has been delayed for 12.9 years and needs to be addressed once we have Water Well #5 in operation.        

The long saga of water well and water issues continues out here in Burton.  We continue to tackle them head on – addressing issues, making facts public, and doing what we can to mitigate our situation – so that we can provide water to our residents as well as to our school district in a safe and reliable way.