Winter Storm Uri Makes Lasting Impact on Texas Water Utilities By Allison Kaminsky, Deputy Executive Director, Texas Rural Water Association
I
n February, record-setting Winter Storm Uri brought snow, ice and piercing-cold temperatures to Texas, immobilizing the state’s power grid and triggering intermittent and sustained outages statewide. This unprecedented event hit water utilities hard, causing system instability or failure for many statewide. According to news reports, there were more than 4.5 million Texans who reported power outages across the state and more than 15 million were issued boil water notices at the peak of the storm. By the time the storm had ended, nearly 2,000 public water systems across Texas reported some level of disrupted operations. Water utility personnel began working around the clock for what would be a week of crisis after crisis compounded by freezing temperatures, lack of power, unsafe road conditions, hindered communication, restricted access to supplies, exhausted personnel, and strained water supply. It all started the afternoon of Sunday, February 14, for College Mound SUD, when they realized they had a problem with their transducer freezing as temperatures plummeted. “We had our guys out working on [the transducer] and they had to basically rewire everything, so it was more insulated and completely out of the elements. And that’s when the power went off for the first time,” said Shirley Thompson, General Manager of the system. By Sunday evening, systems across the state were dealing with similar situations. Some systems were put on rolling blackouts while others lost power all together. Unfortunately, while most systems had some form of backup power supply on hand, some generators were not able to start in the cold and others had mechanical issues. In some instances, portable generators worked, but the hazardous conditions made it dangerous and difficult to transport them to the locations that needed them. Before the sun rose on Monday, February 15, many systems’ backup 24
Quench — 2021 - Issue 2
Starting Sunday evening, water system personnel worked around the clock to face the challenges brought on by Winter Storm Uri.
power generators were already failing as the Texas power grid faced its worst crisis in decades. Even as workers battled to reset generators and keep the electricity on at their critical locations, other problems began to arise. Because of the increased demand and disrupted supply chain, fuel for the generators quickly became scarce. “A 250KW generator requires 200 gallons of diesel a day, larger generators even more. During this crisis, diesel supply became a serious issue for just maintaining Aqua WSC’s four generators,” said Dave McMurry, general manager of the system. Even at systems with reserves on hand, fueling was becoming an issue when it became clear that the storm conditions were not letting up. “Fuel was definitely an issue,” said Brian Macmanus, general manger of East Rio Hondo WSC.
