MLGW: Keep boiling water
Advisory extended ‘until further notice’ as system’s low pressure continues due to broken mains, pipes
Memphis Light Gas and Water customers will need to continue to boil their drinking water and conserve water for the foreseeable future.
“We are still in that state and will be until further notice,” said MLGW President and CEO J.T. Young Sunday evening.
Utility officials had originally asked Memphians to conserve water until noon on Monday. On Sunday, they said they were extending that request indefinitely. They also said there was no date at which the water boil advisory could be lifted as of Sunday.
MLGW issued the advisory for Memphis and parts of Shelby County on Thursday due to low water pressure following days of sub-freezing temperatures and severe weather. Young said no contaminants had been found in the water system and that the advisory was a precautionary measure.
Utility crews spent much of the weekend repairing water mains around the area. There have been hundreds of water main and pipe breaks amid the recent inclement weather.
Vice President of engineering and operations Nick Newman said the system was now demanding 170 million gallons of water a day as of Sunday. In a normal February, that figure would be about 106 million.
The demand has been steadily increasing since Monday. Newman said that was a sign of extensive water main breaks and that they were still struggling to locate all the ruptured mains, which can be four to six feet underground.
However, he said the low water
pressure had not yet impacted the Memphis Fire Department’s ability to respond to fires. Newman said MFD notified MLGW when they were responding to a fire and the utility would temporarily increase water pressure in that area.
Newman and Young said local hospitals had been impacted by the low water pressure but none had been forced to evacuate patients. Local hospitals have also had to boil water and have limited surgeries as much as possible to conserve water.
Tennessee National Guard soldiers from Lobelville’s A Troop with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment are providing a 2,200-gallon water tanker to Saint Francis Hospital-memphis as the hospital deals with ongoing water issues.
The combination of damage to water mains and cold weather impacted the utility’s pumping stations, leading to the drop in water pressure. When the pressure drops below a certain threshold, the utility is mandated by the state to issue a boil water advisory.
Young said the situation was “still very challenging” and said if the water system was a patient in a hospital, it would be in the intensive care unit.
“We’re still (in the) red today,” he said. “But we seem to be trending in the right condition overall.”
Young said it was difficult to say when service could get back to normal, but added they were trying to get back to full operation as quickly as possible without compromising safety.
“We are looking for glimmers of hope of course as we move through this process. I’m seeing that and I’m seeing the diligence of our team,” he said. “It’s difficult to say when things will be back.
Young said water that will be consumed needed to be boiled for three minutes and then cooled.
That includes water that will be used for drinking, cooking, washing fruits and vegetables or brushing teeth.
Water does not need to be boiled before washing hands or taking a shower.
The boil water notice did not apply to Germantown, Bartlett and Collierville, which have their own water systems. The municipalities have sent water to MLGW to help with water pressure issues.
Newman said MLGW had also been offered personnel to help locate and repair broken mains if needed.
The city of Memphis distributed more than 44,000 bottles of water on Sunday and the Tennessee Valley Authority has donated 80,000 bottles of water for MLGW customers under water boil advisories.
MLGW spokesperson Gale Jones Carson said an announcement about where and when those bottles of water would be distributed would come Monday.