Month: February 2021

The report this morning is good news. Our water system has recovered.  The elevated storage tank is within seven feet of capacity. Underground storage tanks are filling and pumping water properly. The city has restored water pressure.

Several testing labs are remaining open today. We will be drawing water samples this morning and delivering the samples to the lab before noon. We hope to have testing results as early as Monday. If our test results provide it safe to lift the boil order, we will do so immediately. Until such time, citizens are to continue to boil water.

Lane H. Jones – C.M.O.
City Manager
City of Van Alstyne, Texas

Overnight we have made great progress in our efforts to fully restore our water system. Water conservation remains critical to our success. We applaud our citizens for the efforts thus far and ask that they continue to use water sparingly so we do not lose ground.

Several labs are offering water testing services to assist municipalities in determining if boil orders can be lifted. Van Alstyne remains in recovery mode inasmuch we are not at the point of testing. The boil order will remain in place over the weekend with the goal of starting our water sample test Monday or Tuesday. The City will announce when the ban is lifted.

Our crews remain dedicated to our community and have done an exceptional job during this crisis.

Lane H. Jones – C.M.O.
City Manager
City of Van Alstyne, Texas

The Boil Order is still in effect.
We are urging everyone to conserve water.

We are on the verge of experiencing water pressure loss. Despite our efforts to keep the elevated storage tank (EST) with water, we have seen consumption continue at high levels. The high level of consumption has caused our EST to drop from 9’ last night to 1’ just a few minutes ago. We are pumping from two underground storage tanks to the EST as quickly as possible but, consumption of water is exceeding our ability to provide water to the tower. If we lose pressure, the water will remain off until such time as all three underground storage tanks are full and we can pump enough water into the EST to resume providing water pressure to the city.

Lane H. Jones – C.M.O.
City Manager, Van Alstyne, Texas

The Boil Order is still in effect, however I am confident that by the time of this writing you have learned that our water system is back up and operating. We were able to raise the elevated storage tank water level to 9.5’ last night but have experienced a sizable drop over the past couple of hours. The City currently has no reported water breaks so I suspect the high volume of water usage relates to our citizens waking up and showering, laundry, etc. We are urging everyone to conserve water as we are not out of the woods. Continued high water consumption may result in additional pressure losses.

Our plan is to continue to move water from our underground storage tanks to the elevated storage tank in hopes of getting our elevated storage tank to stabilize at a level we feel will provide consistent pressure. We also hope to to fill our three underground storage tanks that are now at low levels as we struggle to balance the need for water pressure with recovery needs.

Again, we are not out of the woods…. If consumption of water continues at high levels we may experience a drop in water levels to the point of needing to start the recovery process over again. Every member of the City is working hard to avoid this taking place. We would ask that our citizens do their part by conserving water where possible.

Respectfully,

Lane H. Jones – C.M.O.
City Manager, Van Alstyne, Texas

As reported, our water system was heavily impacted by power outages. The impact of shutting down city power supply caused our pumps to stop functioning and well heads to freeze. This action caused our underground water storage tanks to fall to the point of limiting our ability to fill our elevated storage tank (EST) . Without water in our EST, water to your tap was unavailable.

With the power now remaining on, we are working hard to recover. The three underground storage tanks are filling, albeit, not as quick as we would like. Storage tank #1 holds, at capacity, 24’ in depth and currently is at 9’ in depth. Storage tank #2, at capacity, holds 23’ in depth and is now registering at 21’. Our final storage tank holds 24’ in depth and currently holds 12’. All tanks are filling so we are headed on the road to recovery.

The next step in recovery will be to refill the water lines around the city. This process is underway presently. Filling the lines will take time and once complete, we will then move water from all three storage tanks to our elevated storage and create water pressure, restoring pressure to our City. My best estimate of when this will take place is tomorrow (Friday) by the end of the day.

Once pressure is restored, the boil order will remain in place until such time as TCEQ tests our water supply and give the City approval to lift the order. We will be in line with many other municipalities seeking water testing and approvals so this may take a day or two to secure the needed approval.

Citizens should expect the water from taps to look murky as we will be refilling the entire system and stirring up sediment. This will clear in time.

Lane H. Jones – C.M.O.
City Manager, Van Alstyne, Texas

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