Richardson lifts boil water notice

The boil water notice is lifted in Richardson following laboratory testing, according to a news release issued by the city.

The details

The public water system has taken the necessary corrective actions to restore the quality of the water distributed by the city used for drinking and human consumption purposes, and has provided the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with laboratory test results that indicate the water no longer requires boiling prior to use.

"I would like to thank the community for its support, patience and understanding on behalf of our water crews and all the additional teams brought in to assist in responding to this incident," Richardson City Manager Don Magner said in the news release. "We are committed to conducting a thorough after-action review to identify any improvements that will help us avoid and prevent similar issues in the future."

The city worked with area nonprofit organizations to distribute water to affected residents; however, with the lifting of the boil water notice, operations of the Water Distribution Center have ended.

What happened?

According to an earlier news release, the boil water notice was issued after a water tower lost pressure and affected around 17,000 customers.

Per the release, the loss of pressure was caused by a malfunction of telemetry equipment that failed to notify operators of the drop in water level of the tower. The tower was at zero pressure for approximately five minutes before teams identified the issue and restarted the pumps.

The staff on duty at the time did not recognize the technology malfunction, which, when combined with the equipment failure, allowed the water levels in the tower to drop.