SAWS officials announce a boiling water warning

SAINT ANTHONY – San Antonio Water System customers should boil water before drinking it until further notice.

This recommendation was made by SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente during the emergency meeting of the emergency city council.

An official boiling water warning was expected to be issued later Wednesday.

Puente said the boiling water warning comes out “of great caution” due to the low water pressure and said you only need to boil the water used for drinking. Puente said tap water is safe for washing hands and bathing.

“It’s safe to say we’ll deal with this situation for days, not hours,” Puente said. “This situation is likely to get worse and more pipes on private property will be broken and we will have a harder time maintaining pressure.”

Puente said as long as there are power outages, there will be water problems.

SAWS officials said most of the disruptions are concentrated at the northern end of the city or at the southern end. He said that although there are small water cut-off bags in the city center, low water pressure was a more important issue for most customers.

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He also said lack of energy is not the only problem water customers have now. He said that because there are so many broken pipes in the city, there is a huge amount of water leaking and not reaching the customers. He said that because of the leaks, the city uses more water than we do on some of our hottest summer days.

District 8 councilor Manny Pelaez asked SAWS officials how people could be expected to boil water without electricity.

Puente said SAWS officials would soon meet with HEB to coordinate a way to get water to residents who need it.

Steve Clouse. SAWS senior vice president and chief operating officer told board members that CPS Energy asked SAWS to remove its pumping stations from “critical circuits” when ERCOT shutdowns began. He said that’s why SAWS bombs lost power this week.

“What we’re under is probably once in a generation, once in a lifetime a kind of storm,” Puente said. “SAWS is the largest consumer of our energy and CPS Energy is the largest user of water in our community. So we’ve been coordinating with each other. We’ve been working with each other and trying to let ourselves know what’s going on and what’s the best way to conserve energy and conserve energy. ”

Announcements

Puente asked his customers to be patient saying he acknowledged that many customers have tried to call and are unable to transmit them.

“Our customer service representatives have been working from home due to the COVID pandemic, but now, unfortunately, their own homes have no electricity,” Puente said. “They don’t have it or they don’t have Internet services. Therefore, this causes us an inability to answer the phones and get answers from the public and our community. “

Puente said this week has been a learning experience.

“We will use this particular emergency to re-evaluate what worked and what didn’t work. Whether it’s our equipment, our workers, our responses, our shipping, our communications, it’s all going to be something we’re looking at and wanting to improve on the promise I’m making to each of you, ”Puente said.

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