Georgetown officials expect they will be able to end
a boil-water notice affecting residents in neighborhoods west of city limits by midday Wednesday, said Jim Briggs, the city’s general manager of utilities.
Georgetown Utility Systems, the city’s municipal utility authority, issued the notice Monday for water customers in 24 residential subdivisions in the Western District, an area north of Liberty Hill that was formerly known as the Chisholm Trail SUD. Water customers, including some in areas along Hwy. 29 west of D.B. Wood Road in Georgetown, reported service interruptions this past weekend that city officials traced to a water pump outage.
Briggs told Georgetown City Council on Tuesday that the water pump’s failure was initially thought to be caused by a burned-out motor, but further analysis indicated a greater failure within the pump system itself. Briggs said the 6-year-old water pump should have had plenty of operational life left.
“These pumps were built to last 15 to 20 years, easily. … Obviously, somewhere there’s a problem that existed, and we need to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Repairs to the system to return water service to its previous level should be complete by the weekend, Briggs said. He added that once the boil-water notice ends, utility officials will go door-to-door in affected neighborhoods to inform residents.