Water has been in short supply, according to the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD). On Saturday, the NTMWD asked all who receive their water through NTMWD to reduce their water consumption.
The water alert includes residents of most of Collin County, Rockwall County, North Dallas County, Kaufman County, and portions of adjacent counties.
The Wylie Water Treatment Plant Complex had to shut down one of its four water treatment plants unexpectedly on July 16 to perform critical maintenance required to return the plant to maximum water purification capacity.
The NTMWD alerted those affected that the water was safe to drink but that the quantity of water was the issue. Customers are urged to conserve water and to cease outdoor watering until further notice.
The critical maintenance involves six sedimentation basins at the plant, which remove particles from the water during the treatment process. These basins contribute to the daily production of 210 million gallons of water.
Due to peak water demands by customers, the accumulation of sediment has accelerated and impacted the plant’s ability to process water through the treatment process efficiently. Crews will work around the clock to restore treatment capacity through the basins.
The NTMWD said its notice is a precautionary call to action, as NTMWD’s water purification capacity remains adequate for essential services, including household use and public safety. The regional drought, combined with increased discretionary outdoor water use and irrigation, has put a strain on water purification and distribution systems.
This latest water conservation notice comes after thousands of Rockwall County residents were caught high and dry last Wednesday with no water at all coming from the tap. The July 13 water outage affected about 2,500 household customers of RCH Water Supply Inc., including residents in Royse City and McLendon-Chisholm.
“You would think they would have notified us there was a watering concern or water level issue,” Royse City resident Steve Hanson told Fox4News. “But no, we received no information, no phone calls, no updates on the website that alerted us that we would not have water.”
RCH Water gets its water from the City of Rockwall, and a spokesperson said the company did not receive notice from the City that there was an issue until Monday, July 11. The water utility firm posted a notice on its website, asking its customers to conserve water, but by then, it was too late.
The City of Rockwall posted a message on its Facebook page on Monday, July 11, stating, “The City of Rockwall is pumping 2.1 million gallons of water per day to McLendon-Chisholm, which is well over normal usage levels for a single day. However, due to excessive outdoor watering, residents’ usage levels have exceeded this amount by about 1 million gallons extra per day for the last several weeks. Rockwall is continuing to send water to RCH to supply the 2.1 million gallons per day and has NOT cut off supply to RCH and its customers.”
Currently, RCH Water has a website notice describing the reason behind the water outage, saying it was “the result of extremely high outside sprinkler watering and a limited supply of water available to RCH from our purchased source.”
RCH Water warns that its service area is still under critical water shortage conditions. The company asked that customers dramatically cut outside sprinkler watering and suggested conservation tips to customers such as turning off running water while doing dishes and brushing teeth, as well as collecting and storing rainwater.
