HOA Board Meeting Minutes

Posted by rbutler on Wednesday, July 13 @ 9:05pm

City of Allen Water Alert!

Posted by rbutler on Wednesday, July 13 @ 9:12am

Allen residents and businesses must curtail all non-essential use of water until further notice due to a broken water pipe at the Wylie production plant of the North Texas Municipal Water District. NTMWD stopped delivering water to the City of Allen (and several other cities) early this morning. NTMWD is requesting all water customers in affected areas to not irrigate, use minimum water, not wash cars, etc. Allen has about one-half of its ground storage capacity at the present time.

NTMWD states that it will be at least noon before they can deliver water at low flow to Allen and it will take at least 24 hours to affect complete repairs. This estimate may change as time goes by. Check the City of Allen web site (http://www.cityofallen.org/) for updates.

Update @11:21AM: There is currently NO water delivery taking place to Allen. We now have only 10 hours supply in our ground and elevated storage tanks at normal usage levels. If we successfully limit our water use to essential uses only, we can make this water last 36- 48 hours.

The water the City of Allen still has to deliver to residences and businesses is still safe and drinkable- the present situation is not a water quality issue.

The North Texas Municipal Water District has issued a News Release on the current Water Emergency situation:

• Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Plano, Melissa, Lucas, Parker, Prosper, The Colony, Princeton, and several smaller towns and water supply systems are all affected.
• The problem is a broken pipeline that NTMWD is going to repair as soon as possible. Actions by the water district are underway to restore JUST partial service to affected communities; about 30-40% restoration of delivery is all that is anticipated. This partial restoration is hoped for in the next 12 to 24 hours. When repairs are affected, it will take several days to restore full system capacity. The water district cannot estimate how long it will take to affect full repairs at the present time.
• The NTMWD and the City Manager of The City of Allen have declared a Stage 4 Emergency Condition. The following water use restrictions are now in affect:
  1. All non essential usage of water is prohibited. Essential means required for health, safety, and welfare of our citizens.
  2. Vehicle washing is prohibited, including commercial car washing.
  3. All commercial and residential landscape watering is prohibited.
  4. No filling of new swimming pools; existing pools may maintain their water levels.
  5. All commercial water users must reduce uses by 60-70%.
  6. The City is also shutting down all commercial construction including home building with below ground activities, directional boring, and water/sewer line installation to help avoid water line breaks.

• The Community Services Staff and Parks and Recreation Staff field staffs have met to implement a decision to cut off all landscape irrigation systems in the City at the Check Valves as soon as possible. This will be done City-wide for all 21,000 residential and commercial customers. We have made this decision because the current best-case scenario is for 30-40% water supply restoration by NTWMD by this evening some time. At even 40% supply, we cannot afford to allow any landscape irrigation.
• NTMWD reports that they are soon to establish the alternate delivery system to provide 30-40% of normal supply but it will take several hours to fill the pipes with water and for the cities to see any delivery.
• At 1 PM, we had about 11.5 million gallons of water in ground and elevated storage; this is down from 13 million gallons we had at 9 AM. We have reduced consumption to 0.5 million gallons per hour. Curtailing irrigation uses is critical to maximizing our time with the water we have on board now.
• If repairs to the broken 78" line in Wylie are completed as expected in 24-36 hours, it will still be a total of 3-4 days with reduced water supply to the many affected cities.
• We have not shut down any businesses in Allen except car washes. We have shut down all residential home and commercial construction with underground activities to minimize our chance for a water main break. McKinney has shut down all restaurants and some other businesses as they evidently did not have as much water in storage when the event hit as we did in Allen.
• The water that is in our system is safe. This is not a "water quality" issue, it is a water supply issue.
• A decision will be made later today about activating the City EOC to manage calls and our response. The Collin County EOC was activated at about noon. The City's Emergency Manager, Craig Gillis, is in constant contact with Collin County.
• Teresa Warren us inviting media coverage through print and television media to aid in getting the word out on conservation. Staff has already met with Channel 11 and spoken with 8; and the Dallas Morning News and the Allen American. Both papers will have articles tomorrow.

• North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) has begun to deliver the 30-40% of the City's usual water demand. The limited supply will be directed first to the cities that have the lowest current water supply.
• The low supply allows for continued residential usage for purposes other than landscape irrigation and car washing.
• Allen plans to continue the Stage 4 (Highest Stage) Water Emergency Condition until NTMWD repairs the broken water main in Wylie and restores full system capacity. Repair is expected to be completed by tomorrow, Thursday, July 14.

Updated: Wednesday, July 13 @ 8:15pm