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The 10:30 a.m. outage led water pressure at the plant to drop below required minimum levels. That caused water pressure issues for some residents, although those problems were resolved later in the day, public works officials said in a statement.
More broadly, however, the outage called into question the safety of water for 2.2 million customers. Houston’s order Sunday night directed residents to boil all water used for food, drinking, bathing or tooth brushing, and to avoid using water from refrigerators or ice makers.
It wasn’t clear what caused the water plant’s power outage, why it took the city 10 hours to issue a boil water order or how soon the order could be lifted.
Houston resident Jacqueline Westman on Sunday posted photos on Twitter of local grocery store shelves with only a few cases of water left: “There will be people in communities who will find out about the boil notice tomorrow and most likely won’t be able to buy water at their nearby grocery store.”
Westman also questioned why it took the city so long to notify residents, especially those in low-income neighborhoods without internet access.
“Public Works has a vast budget and we all found out two hours ago. What about those not on Twitter?” she wrote. “We deserve answers.”
In response to complaints from residents who received the notice after cooking, brushing their teeth, showering or bathing their children, Houston Public Works posted on Twitter that “There are proper procedures & protocols in place before a boil water notice” and they had conferred with state environmental officials “to ensure all steps were taken before the notice was issued.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that he had been in contact with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) about the boil water order, which Abbott said was due to a loss of power at three water plants — two more than Houston officials had cited.
Abbott said state environmental quality officials were “working to fulfill the city’s request for help with rapid turnaround of water sample results” and noted that the state “stands ready to review the city of Houston’s water sample results and offer any needed technical assistance.”
“Texas is swiftly responding to help get a safe supply of water back online in Houston,” Abbott posted on Twitter.
While areas surrounding Houston have issued boil water orders in recent months, and other Texas cities have issued them this year, Houston hasn’t faced such a widespread water emergency since the statewide freeze and power crisis in February 2021.
Houston is Texas’s largest city, led by Turner, who is Black, and other Democratic officials in a state dominated by Republicans. Water issues have plagued several cities in recent years, from Baltimore to Flint, Mich., and Jackson, Miss.
Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched an investigation into whether Republican-run Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state’s capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system that led to water pump failures, a loss of running water and boil water orders that stretched from summer into fall.
