LITTLE ELM, Texas — Frustrated residents filled a municipal board room in the Little Elm area on Monday night, searching for an explanation as to why water in their homes has struggled to flow since Aug. 17.
Those residents belong to the Frisco Ranch community, located north of Little Elm and south of the city of Prosper.
Board members for the Frisco West Water Control and Improvement District of Denton County listened to those residents and tried to provide some answers.
The board explained to residents that homes have had intermittent issues with low or no water pressure at all beginning on the 17th when a software upgrade failed to alert officials to low tank levels.
Power problems, the board added, have also been to blame. Faulty connections were being repaired on Monday, per the board.
"Over the weekend, we discovered that there may be a separate power issue where a connection was faulty – due to a power surge, poor connection – something. Last night (Sunday), we switched to using a generator to power our systems, and there was no issue as a result," the board said in a release.
"Today, we are making repairs to the electrical connections that we believe are the source of the issue. However, because the pumps need to refill the tank, restoring pressure will not be immediate. It will take some time to fill up the tank, which will vary based on on-demand consumption while the refilling is occurring. We are also exploring our other options to expedite this."
The board's president also added that there were pump malfunctions, too.
As of 2:15 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 28, the board had activated an emergency interconnect between its operator and Little Elm to provide uninterrupted water access to residents in the community.
Residents, specifically a firefighter in the meeting, questioned why that wasn't done sooner, considering that water would be needed in the case of an emergency with the fire department.
Other residents demanded that more communication be made next time a series of events impacts the water flow so they can be better prepared.
The community is already facing stage 2 water restrictions that limit watering outside.
After the emergency interconnect was activated, no water flow issues were expected, according to the board.