Droughts, parched farms, ranches and instructions to water lawns less frequently are part of life in Texas. Unfortunately, so too are aging, neglected water pipes and boil water notices.
Last year, Texas officials issued boil water notices roughly 3,000 times to alert residents that water in their distribution system could be unsafe to drink. That’s up from 1,500 boil water advisories in Texas in 2015, a more than twofold increase from 650 in 2008, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Some of the notices last year remained in place for a few hours, others for a few days, and in most instances, water main breaks, drops in water pressure, flooding, power outages and other accidents had raised concerns that contamination such as lead, E. coli or dangerous “forever chemicals” could threaten water systems.
A recent Texas Tribune analysis of data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found that using boiled, bottled or disinfected water for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and preparing food is all too common for many Texans. Seven of the 10 water entities that issued the most boil water notices last year were in rural parts of East Texas and the remaining in rural parts of North Central Texas, the Texas Tribune concluded.
This is more than an urban-rural divide. Large cities also have old pipes, brittle water infrastructure and ongoing battles with Mother Nature. Last summer, broken water lines caused a 13-day boil water notice in Laredo and a major water outage in Odessa, and Zapata almost ran out of water after reservoirs reached dangerously low levels. A few months later, Houston residents were warned to boil water after a power outage at a water treatment plant, adding the nation’s fourth-largest city to the growing list of cities from Flint, Mich., to Jackson, Miss., to grapple with a water crisis.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates one water main breaks every two minutes in the United States, resulting in the loss of roughly 6 billion gallons of treated water a day, enough to fill over 9,000 swimming pools. The group also says Texas’ conservation, planning, state funding and management efforts are working but that Texas must continue to make improvements to keep pace with the state’s population and commercial growth.
As this newspaper has noted for years, water is critical to the state’s long-term prosperity. The state must continue to reduce water loss, repair broken or antiquated water systems and encourage conservation. Texas has roughly $2 billion of federal money to spend on water infrastructure in the next few years. This is a down-payment on water safety and security, and Texas will have to aggressively finance infrastructure and water supply improvements, too. This is especially important because Texans rely heavily on surface water sources that can be significantly depleted during prolonged droughts.
The state has a hefty surplus this session, and it is important that lawmakers use a portion of it to ensure safe and ample water supply throughout Texas.
The Dallas Morning News
