AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Water said customers can resume normal water use now that repairs have been completed on a leaking 48-inch waterline in southwest Austin.
Some customers in southwest Austin were asked to conserve water on Friday and Saturday while repairs were underway on the waterline.
Around 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Austin Water said repairs were complete and crews had performed routine procedures to flush and disinfect the repaired lines.
The waterline near the Davis Lane pump station was leaking and had to temporarily be taken out of service. That caused low water pressure for some customers.
“Thanks to our community’s conservation efforts, we maintained sufficient water storage in our reservoirs and stable system pressure throughout the repair process,” Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson said. “Area customers can expect repair completion notices through the My ATX Water portal to let them know the system is back to normal.“
Roalson said crews needed to take that main offline so they could make repairs starting on Friday.
"Some customers called in and let us know that they had seen some water. And so, we went in search of the leak and we found it," Roalson said.
Austin Water said while repairs were underway, some customers complained of having low water pressure, but there were no reports of water being completely off.
The southwest reservoirs were filled to capacity before the repair work started. While the pipeline was out of service, Austin Water had limited ability to refill the reservoirs.
Austin Water offered cases of water to people in the affected area on Friday and Saturday at Bowie High School. Volunteers helped distribute nearly 3,500 cases of water.
"We are also mindful of the fact that we want the city to fix its infrastructure, and the fact that we're going to be without water for a couple hours, that's fine," said Jeremy Mazur, a senior policy advisor for Texas 2036 and resident in the affected area. "If you consider the fact that every Texas water connection loses 50 to 52 gallons of water per day, that's enough water to fill up one of our area's major reservoirs."
Roalson said this exact reason is why Austin Water works to be proactive rather than reactive.
"In the last several years, we need to improve the resiliency of the infrastructure in southwest Austin. And so, we are looking, we already have a contract in place for an additional elevated storage tank in southwest Austin," Roalson said.
The work impacted three of Austin Water’s wholesale customers: Shady Hollow, High Valley Water Supply Corporation and Mid-Tex Utility.
"Inspecting, maintaining and repairing thousands of miles of pipe is a routine occurrence for Austin Water, but any situation that may degrade service to our customers for more than a couple of hours triggers our incident response plan," Roalson said. "While I'm confident that our team will complete the needed repair as efficiently as possible, Austin Water is committed to implementing a well-planned incident response to mitigate any extended customer service issues."