Monday, April 29, 2024
According to Justin Lehrman, every time he or his fiancé called Texas Water Utilities to find out what was going on with their water service in Comanche Harbor, the person on the other end of the line either said they weren’t aware that there was an outage or said that the company was waiting on a booster pump or a part that was needed for repairs.
That went on for “an entire month,” he said.
The company eventually brought bottled water to the subdivision, but people had to go pick it up. It wasn’t brought to them, Lehrman said.
Finally, things seemed to get a little better but it was nevertheless “hit or miss,” he stated.
“The last couple of days, it seems like we’ve had water more often than not,” Lehrman told the Hood County News earlier this month. “But before that it was more often than not that we didn’t have water.”
Sara Cadenhead, who also lives in Comanche Harbor, said basically the same thing last week.
“Within the past two to three months, it’s pretty much more often that we don’t have water than we do have water,” she said.
And then there was an email that the HCN received last weekend by another person who said that they live in Comanche Harbor and have been enduring water problems.
“Go without water for up to 3 days, then a trickle, maybe water pressure for a day, then none again,” the woman wrote, adding that she had been under a boil water notice for almost two weeks.
Cadenhead said that she complained to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and was told that the agency was investigating the matter.
Comanche Harbor has been served in the past by SouthWest Water Company. In November 2021, SouthWest began doing business in Texas as Texas Water Utilities, according to a press release.
TWU also oversees the operations of Midway Water Utilities, Inc.; Monarch Utilities I L.P.; Hornsby Bend Utility Company; Windermere Utility Company; and Mid-Tex Utilities.
TWU President Jeffrey L. McIntyre provided a written statement to the HCN. He acknowledged that customers in Comanche Harbor and also in Ports O’ Call have been experiencing “low to no water pressure,” and said that the problem has been due to drought conditions.
“The water supply from multiple wells is being used at a faster rate than we can replenish our storage tanks,” he wrote.
McIntyre said that the company understands the “dissatisfaction” felt by customers and said that crews are “working to ensure that water pressure is restored as quickly as possible.”
He stated, “Once we identified the severity of the decrease in water pressure, we alerted customers and issued a precautionary boil water notice in accordance with TCEQ regulations. We also increased drought restrictions to Stage 3 to urge water conservation. We remain in constant communication with the Comanche Harbor/Ports O’ Call Homeowners Association and have worked with them to distribute bottled water to impacted households.”
Stage 3 drought restrictions prohibit the use of automatic irrigation systems and hose-end sprinklers. Rinsing or washing sidewalks, driveways and vehicles with a hand-held bucket or hose are also prohibited. Further guidelines call for outdoor watering to be limited to early mornings or evenings on a designated watering day when the sun is set.
“While we work to increase water supply, our efforts can be significantly supported by the community diligently adhering to the drought guidelines for outdoor watering,” McIntyre stated. “Providing safe and reliable water is of the utmost important to us, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for this inconvenience.”
WATER CHALLENGES
Struggles by companies to provide an adequate supply of treated water are nothing new for Hood County, especially during scorching summers when there is triple-digit heat and drought conditions.
Last month, the Acton Municipal Utility District instituted Stage 2 water restrictions due to equipment failure.
The city of Granbury recently activated its Stage 1 water shortage plan, asking customers to voluntarily cut back.
Both conservation plans involve limitations on outdoor watering.
Also, the city of Granbury recently notified water customers that it had failed to meet the TCEQ’s minimum treatment technique requirements for the months of March and April in 2021 and January and February of this year.
Specifically, the city’s water system had “Low Disinfectant Contact Time (CT) for more than four consecutive hours,” the notice stated.
To prevent a recurrence of the violations, the city “engaged an engineering firm to reprogram the Microfilter computer system to grab the correct data point to prevent any further violations,” the announcement stated.
Despite the issue, the water was never unsafe to drink, according to the city.
Earlier this week, all 12 public water systems for Hood County that are listed on the TCEQ’s website showed a priority of “W,” which stands for “Watch.”
