MLGW lifts ‘boil water’ advisory for all customers
Memphis Light, Gas & Water has officially lifted the “boil water” advisory issued to all customers last week.
Officials with the utility company expressed optimism on Wednesday following a week of crews working around the clock to execute $3.6 million worth of repairs to the infrastructure’s 135 broken water mains caused by the severe winter weather.
On Thursday, utility president J.T. Young started off the daily briefing with the announcement customers could now drink water without boiling it. The pressure across the system has now stabilized, and all pumping stations are operational, he said.
“We’re grateful for being able to say that,” Young
said. Continuing with the patient-inthe-hospital analogy he’s used throughout the week to describe the status of the system, Young said, “The patient has been released from the hospital and is doing very, very well.”
Young asked that both residential and commercial customers continue to conserve water through 10 a.m. Friday morning as crews continue to flush air out of water lines throughout the city.
In addition to the broken water mains that ruptured across the city, residential leaks also caused tens of millions of gallons to hemorrhage from the system every day.
While some progress has been made in capping the amount of leaks, the utility is still soliciting calls from customers who have leaks on their property, said Nick Newman, the vice president of engineering and operations for electric, gas and water.
For customers concerned about high water bills incurred because of leaks, Young said the company would automatically issue a one-time price adjustment to customers who had leaks on their property.
Those adjustments will be made automatically; customers do not have to call the company about their water bill, Young said.
“It will take a few days to get the program done, but we recognize these are extenuating circumstances,” Young said.
The boil water advisory was issued as an automatic precaution. When water pressure drops below a certain level, it triggers an automatic advisory per state standards.
Low pressure means systems are vulnerable to sediments and biological contaminants, but Young emphasized that at no point were contaminants ever detected in the system.
Newman offered additional guidance points for MLGW customers: throw out any ice that was made with water drawn during the advisory; and should water lines make any slight noises, more than likely it’s air leaving the line.
Young expressed gratitude for both the patience and support from MLGW customers and the crews that worked around the clock to make the necessary repairs.
When the utility issued the advisory last week, it was the first such advisory of its kind in the utility’s history.