Residents in Austin no longer have to boil their drinking water after an order that had been in place since the weekend was lifted earlier this week, but the problem is sparking questions.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler took to social media to address the issue, noting that Austin City Council will be meeting next week, giving the city manager an opportunity to respond to questions.
“The boil notice in Austin has been lifted,” Adler said in a tweet. “Thank you for your patience.”
According to a KVUE report, Austin Water got the approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to lift the boil ban, which had been in place for four days.
“We should not be dealing with frequent water boils, and we all have questions,” Adler added in his social media post.
The order was issued when cloudiness was detected in the water at Austin Water’s Ullrich Water Treatment plant, according to a Fox7 report, and a spokesperson said staff at the utility had narrowed the cause of the issue to “an internal operational issue.”
"The boil water notice has been lifted and customers can resume use of their tap water for consumption," Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros told KVUE. "Austin Water will immediately begin a thorough review of the incident and will implement any necessary process improvements to avoid operator errors in the future."
According to a Fox7 report, Austin Water detected the cloudiness in the water and waited 25 hours before issuing the boil water notice on Feb. 5, with a utility spokesperson noting that the TCEQ requires notices be issued within 24 hours of any incident.
According to a news release from the city, Austin Water went through a five-step process to ensure water quality before it lifted the boil alert.
Moreover, Fox7 reported that this week’s boil alert was the third boil alert in the city in the last four years, prompting Austin City Council Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter to tell the station that Austin Water needs to explain why this pattern seems to persist.