MIDLAND, Texas — UPDATE: As of 2:00 a.m. here on Saturday, the City of Midland says the boil water notice has officially been lifted.
Next steps include:
- Household faucets and pipes: Flush your plumbing and pipes. To flush your plumbing, run water through all of your cold-water faucets for at least 5 minutes. If your service connection is long or complex (such as in an apartment building) consider flushing for a longer period. Your property manager or landlord should be able to advise you on longer flushing times.
- Automatic ice makers: Dump existing ice and flush the water feed lines by making and discarding three batches of ice cubes. Wipe down the ice bin with a disinfectant. If your water feed line to the machine is longer than 20 feet, increase to five batches.
- Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System: Drain your RO storage tank, sanitize the system, and replace the reverse osmosis filters. The filters are disposable and may be contaminated. This especially applies to carbon filters and others that are near the end of their life.
- Hot Water Heater: Run enough water to completely replace at least one tank full of water
- Water coolers, in line filters, and other appliances with direct water connections: replace water cooler filters and sanitize the system.
- Water softeners: Flush your water softening system by initiation the regeneration cycle.
All other issues should be addressed to the City of Midland Utilities Department.
Per the Utilities Director of Midland:
The notice was due to several factors that led to this situation. The entire staff of the Utilities Department works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to provide water that is safe to use and consume, drains that work, and toilets that flush.
The incident started on Tuesday afternoon when a 30 foot water main was damaged during construction, causing the main to rupture. Given the size and type of pipe along with the magnitude of damage, it required specialized repair assistance from outside of the City. The damage resulted in the loss of approximately 6.5 million gallons of water. Crews swiftly shut the main line down.
The loss put the City system in a water deficit, but not to levels that pressures were below fire standards. Employees at the water treatment plant worked through the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday to get the system recharged with treated water.
Unknown to our plant operators, while working on this issue, the automatic level indicator for the reservoir had a mechanical error. The reservoir was drawn past its low intake point, allowing the pipe intake to pull in water mixed with a large amount of lake debris that settled at the bottom of the reservoir. The operators were focused on water levels in the tanks and distribution system and did not notice that dirty water had entered the treatment process and overloaded to the point where a plant shutdown was necessary.
The result was a loss of flow into the City distribution system and caused two treatment technique violations. Previously, when the plant needed to be shut down, the City could increase the water flow from the T-Bar well field. However, due to where the line was damaged on Tuesday, the City was not able to access T-Bar as a backup water source.
Early Thursday, emergency contractors arrived to work on the ruptured main while City employees worked to find solutions to get the plant back operational. Both of these projects took longer than expected.
Unfortunately, water levels lowered to the point where a part of the City was without water, or had very low water pressure causing a boil water notice. Staff continued working on the two-prong problem for the next 30 hours and succeeded in getting the plant back to state standards, the 30 foot main into operation, and the T-Bar source was able to provide water to the City.
The boil water notice was issued January 5, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. and lifted January 7, 2023 at 2:00 a.m.
The city starting next week, with the new mayor Lori Blong and the new council getting seated, will start determining what needs to happen in regards to how they got there, according to current mayor Patrick Payton.
The City of Odessa helped out exponentially by providing several pallets of water among other things to assist the city of Midland.
According to the utilities director Carl Craigo, the city has had several close calls at the utilities department, but this is the first one to cause a boil water notice. The freeze back in 2020 helped the department be prepared in case something like this happened. Due to that, they were able to act quickly.
The water boil notice puts the city in position to know what to do even more in case something like this happens again, according to Craigo.
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The City of Midland has issued a boil water notice for the whole city as of 2 p.m. on Thursday.
The notice impacts the city's water system due to a recent water main break on SH 158 and HWY 191 from the ground source water, as well as issues at the water plant.
This notice is being issued until the city is able to treat the water to standard specifications.
Any water being used for drinking, brushing teeth, washing fruits and vegetables, preparing food and baby formula, making ice or giving to pets should be boiled rigorously for at least two minutes then cooled.
This includes filtered and RO water.
The city says all residents should at least have running water again.
Boil water notices are usually kept in place for 24 hours at minimum to allow for samples to be tested for contaminants. The city is hoping to have the water notice lifted Saturday, but that is only speculation at this time.
Since the notice was issued because the city says its plant is unable to "treat water to standard specification", that could mean it will take longer to rescind the notice.
Midland ISD announces schools will be closed to students Friday due to the boil water notice. Employees should check their email for instructions on reporting for work.
Five water distribution sites were set up Friday. As of 4:30 p.m., a City of Midland spokesperson confirmed that remaining water at distribution centers will be delivered to the MLK Center.
It will be open until 7 p.m. or while supplies last. (Editor's note: These locations are now closed as of 5:45 p.m.)
The initial five sites were at the following locations:
- MLK Center on Butternut Lane
- First Baptist Church on Louisiana
- Midland College Chaparral Center on Garfield
- Stonegate Fellowship on Wadley
- Southeast Senior Center on Indiana
Anyone with a child enrolled in the Boys and Girls Club Food-2-Kids program will be able to get a grab and go meal at the MLK Center or the Southeast Senior Center.
Sack meals will also be available at the Midland ISD administration building and the MLK Center. Pantry box information will be available on the West Texas Food Bank’s social media.
According to Utilities Director Carl Craigo, a contractor with JD King working on the D.R. Horton subdivision hit a line on Monday.
This caused the city to lose millions of gallons of water.
This started a domino effect, which caused a mechanical operator issue Wednesday night at the plant which failed to keep the water up to standard.
According to Whitney Craig, the Health Services Manager for Midland, all restaurants will need to boil water, and they cannot use any fountain water or ice machines.
The water is similar to lake water right now, meaning if you have already ingested some water you should be okay, but it is not recommended to consume over a longer period of time.
Payton gave out 432-688-4160 as the emergency phone number only for anyone who might need it, such as nursing homes with out water.
The city and county have signed emergency declarations and the state will be assisting.
They also said the fire crews have enough water pressure to be able to put out any fires should that issue arise.
The City of Midland will be continuing to hold press conferences at regular intervals until the notice is rescinded.
NewsWest 9 contacted JD King for a statement on the line break, but we were unable to get a hold of their spokesperson at this time.
The water testing by the TCEQ began at 1:00 a.m. on Friday. The process will take about 24 hours, and the city says there will be water flushed near SH 158 around noon and 2 p.m. Friday to help get things back up to standard.
For more information on what you can and can't do when a boil water notice is issued, you can click or tap here.