TAYLOR, Texas — The city of Taylor has moved into Stage 3 water restrictions after the Brazos River Authority announced some of its pumps went down at Lake Granger.
The Brazos River Authority supplies water to about 60,000 customers in Central Texas, including the city of Taylor, the Jonah Special Water Utility District and Lonestar Regional Water Authority.
On Thursday, Brad Burnett, the regional manager at the lower basin area at the Brazos River Authority, said the pumps were out.
"We had a power glitch at the pump station. We are still trying to figure out what happened, but all three of the pumps we have down there that pump water from the lake up to the plant tripped off," Burnett said. "When our folks went back to restart them, two of them continued to trip and [they] couldn't get them restarted."
The water is supposed to go a treatment plant and eventually makes it to the customers. All three pumps supply up to 24 million gallons daily – 8 million gallons for each pump. Currently, only one is working.
Because of that, the city of Taylor has moved into Stage 3 water restrictions.
"We are asking all the customers to reduce the water usage by about 20% percent before this happened," the city said.
Brunett said customers use about 9 million gallons a day, so that is why the Brazos River Authority has brought in a temporary pump until it gets the other two fixed.
“It’s going to provide 3 to 5 million gallons per day," he said.
On top of that, one pump is proving 8 million gallons a day. There is also a 20 million-gallon storage reservoir.
Brunett said it could take up to a week for all pumps to start working again.