Boil water advisory lifted after pipe burst

Houston on Saturday morning lifted the boil water notice that has been in place since a water main burst Thursday.

The notice was lifted at 10:50 a.m. when the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the 43 water samples the city submitted for testing.

“I appreciate everyone’s patience over the past couple of days as Houston Water crews worked to isolate the break and restore water pressure to the city of Houston,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “I also thank the community for conserving water usage and following the boil water notice.”

City officials said residents and businesses should flush their systems by letting the water run for a couple minutes before returning to normal consumption. Automatic ice-makers should also be cleared, and folks should discard a few batches of ice from the machines before using them again.

The notice stemmed from the rupture of a massive, 8-feet-wide water pipe Thursday near Clinton Drive and Loop 610 East, which sent thousands of gallons of water across the highway and created a cascade of problems for the city, including the closure of many schools, businesses and restaurants.

Workers with Harper Brothers Construction, a city contractor, were digging about 3 feet above the 10-feet-deep pipe when it burst Thursday afternoon. City officials have since said the soil was essentially containing the leak, and neither they nor the contractor had any indication it was as big as it proved to be.

“The repairs on the water line will continue through the weekend, and we expect the line to be back in service no later than Tuesday. Once the city returns to regular operations, Houston Water staff will analyze the event and data to take the necessary steps to ensure the resiliency of our systems,” Turner said.

The city has maintained all along that it had no reason to believe the water was contaminated, but the state requires a boil notice to be implemented when water pressure decreases below 20 psi.

Such conditions make it easier for bacteria to spread in the water, but the state and city have now said they confirmed that didn’t happen here.

The city has yet to offer an estimate on just how much water was lost. The drinking water had already been treated and will likely cost the city a lot of money.

Meanwhile, repair work on the concrete pipe continued Saturday. Officials have said it will likely be completed sometime Sunday, though it will then need to be chlorinated and flushed. They hope it will resume carrying water on Tuesday.

While the Loop reopened early Friday morning, a portion of Clinton Drive remains closed for the pipe repairs. That will likely remain the case for a few weeks, as crews work to reconstruct the affected part of the road after the repairs are complete.