Crews tasked with repairing infrastructure breakdowns

Update: Marble Falls has rescinded its boil water notice as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23. Horseshoe Bay and Kingsland have also rescinded boil water notices.

Water service has been restored to most of Burnet County following last week’s Winter Storm Uri, but boil water notices remain in effect.

Marble Falls

The city of Marble Falls is under a boil water notice for the area east of and along US 281 and north of Ranch to Market Road 1431, including at Colt Elementary and Marble Falls High School. City officials said sustained freezing temperatures last week, coupled with rolling blackouts, “impacted the city’s ability to treat and distribute water.

“As of now, filling the Mormon Mill and Mustang storage tanks is our issue impacting the affected area,” the city announced late last week. “Our primary objective is to re-pressurize the portion of our water system in the affected area, while maintaining water service to the rest of the community. This work could take several days as we must have sustained warmer weather and little to no rolling blackouts to diagnose and repair the water system.”

Water distribution points were set up where citizens could fill their own containers at Marble Falls Fire Rescue, 700 Ave. N, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and at Trinity Episcopal Church, 909 Ave. D, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Sunday, cases of water were handed out at Fellowship Baptist Church, 2702 Mormon Mill Road.

A shower trailer was available at Elevate Church, 700 Gateway Pkwy., Marble Falls, for residents without running water to get cleaned up Monday. Those who used the trailer had to bring their own towels and only limited toiletries were available.

Cottonwood Shores

Cottonwood Shores City Administrator J.C. Hughes said Monday the city had started filling the elevated water tank Sunday night and began releasing water into the distribution system Monday morning. The city also has opened up its emergency water connection with Horseshoe Bay to put more water into the system.

“The lowest elevations in town will receive water first, and the highest elevations will receive water last – the system fills up from the bottom up,” Hughes said. “We cannot tell you exactly when you will receive water because of various elevations, but we do expect this to take most of the day to fill our water system.”

Hughes said he expected the refill process to take at least until Monday afternoon and said the city will be opening fire hydrants “to flush out the air and sediment.”

“We also expect breaks in the water main and in residents’ homes, which will cause us to lose water in the tower and the system,” Hughes said.

Portable bathrooms have been set up for public use in front of Hill Country Community Theatre on Dutch Leming and on Hedges Drive in front of the city water plant.

Hughes said the city will remain under a boil water notice until further notice.

Granite Shoals

The City of Granite Shoals is now under a boil water notice “due to prolonged low pressure in the water system.

“The city is able to operate treatment plants, but at a reduced capacity and is unable to meet the current demand of customers and in order to safeguard the public health, all city water customers must boil their water prior to consumption,” the city announced.

Horseshoe Bay

Horseshoe Bay officials said the city continues to work to restore water service to all parts of the city.

“Progress is being made; however, there are areas in higher elevations of the city that are still without water service,” the city announced. “Please continue to conserve so all customers can be restored.

“Irrigation systems should not operate until Monday, March 1. Any system found on will have water service disconnected until proof that the system has been turned off.”

Three sites were established for distributing purified drinking water from noon to 5 p.m.: Quail Point Lodge, 107 Twilight; Fire Station 1, 1 Community Drive; and Fire Station 2, 601 Broken Hill.

A boil water notice was in effect while city officials took water quality samples Sunday and expected results to be back late Monday.

“Once we are assured the water is safe we will notify our customers that the Boil Water Notice will be rescinded,” the city announced.

Kingsland WSC

Kingsland Water Supply Corporation began flushing air from their system and performing required sampling tests Monday as part of the process of normalizing water pressure, the organization announced.

“The sampling could take a few days since the samples have to be sent to an independent lab in Austin and those tests take 24 hours to complete,” Kingsland WSC announced. “As soon as we have results we will notify the membership of the results. We don’t have a timetable for when those will be available, so in the meantime, please continue to boil the water.”

The organization went onto Facebook to thank citizens who helped them locate leaks and lent assistance to neighbors.

Corix Utilities

On Sunday, Corix Utilities crews were able to restore water to Lake Buchanan and Spicewood Beach and were hopeful to have water restored to Ridge Harbor, Tow Village, Bonanza Beach, and Paradise Point water systems on Monday.

In Smithwick Mills, pressure was being brought back up Monday morning and officials noted “it takes time for the water to reach all parts of the system and the pressure will come up very slowly for some. Our process requires that we bring it up slowly because, if pressure rises too quickly, it will cause pipes to burst.”

Meanwhile, Horseshoe Bay was reinstating water flow to the Corix system in Sandy Harbor on Monday morning as well.

“Although we expect BWAs (boil water advisories) to be in place for a few more days, we are optimistic we can have water flowing in all systems by Monday morning,” Corix Utilities said in a statement on Facebook.