HOUSTON — The boil water notice that has been in effect for the entire city of Houston since Sunday was lifted Tuesday morning just after 6:30 a.m., local health officials announced.
The notice was issued for the City of Houston's main water system.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality confirmed that customers no longer need to boil water before drinking, cooking, and making ice.
Next steps
Those affected by the notice should flush their water system by running cold water for at least one minute, clean automatic ice makers by making and throwing out several batches of ice, and running water softeners through a regeneration cycle.
How to check if your address was affected
The City of Houston Public Works sent a link Monday to a map and tool to help you find out if your address was included in the notice. All you have to do is type in your address and the map will tell you if your address is included.
Get alerted
The city has made it easy for you to get notified when something happens that you need to know about with Aert Houston.
Once you go to the Alert Houston link, you'll go through a series of screens. First, you register for the alerts.
Next, tell a little about yourself and set up a password.
Give your phone number or email.
Give your location.
And check which alerts you'd like to receive and then confirm the information.
What happened
The city said the water pressure at the East Water Purification Plant (2342 Federal Road) dropped below the state's required minimum during a power outage on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city decided to issue a boil water notice out of an abundance of caution. That was at 6:40 p.m. At 6:44, four minutes later, KHOU received an emailed press release announcing the boil water advisory.
The city water department said the boil water notice is precautionary and it doesn't believe you’re at any risk if you drank or used water on Sunday before the notice was issued.
Houston Water Director Yvonne Williams Forrest spoke to KHOU 11 News about the notice.
Turner said 14 of the 16 sensors showing water pressure below the state’s limit dropped sometime before 11 a.m. and stayed that way for less than two minutes. The other two rebounded within 30 minutes.
The mayor said Houston Water staff spoke with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Sunday afternoon for nearly four hours.
The plant
The East Water Purification Plant was built in 1954 and the city has spent tens of millions of dollars in upgrades in recent years. A Houston Public Works spokesperson said the city has a contract with a vendor that performs regular maintenance on the transformers, and there was nothing in their history to indicate Sunday’s malfunction. The spokesperson added that the transformers are about 24 years old.