Some cities in Texas have issued "boil water" notices and others are urging conservation as a result of cold weather. Wednesday afternoon, boil notices were in place in Arlington and Richland Hills.
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The City of Richland Hills said rolling blackouts have affected the city's ability to pump water to customers. Arlington issued a boil water notice because of demand and a water main break.
In those cities, people are urged to boil water for at least five minutes and then let the water cool before using.
The North Texas Municipal Water District serves 80 cities and towns north and east of Dallas. The district is calling for conservation as a result of increased demand and a drop in supply.
"Everyone's having frozen pipes. The district is having some frozen equipment, and that is reducing their capability of supplying us water," says City of Plano Public Works Director Jerry Cosgrove.
Cosgrove is asking Plano residents to conserve water by making sure irrigation systems are turned off and avoiding the use of dishwashers and washing machines. Anyone with a running irrigation system could be fined.
Cosgrove says conservation could prevent the need for a boil water notice later.
"It's unusual now, because everyone is dripping their pipes. That prevents the pipes from freezing, but demand is a lot higher than it has been in previous weeks," he says. "Our demand went up almost 50% [Monday] than it was the day before."
Cosgrove says people should continue dripping faucets to prevent pipes from breaking, which would cost even more water. He says people should also know where the valve to turn off their water supply is located; for some it is near the curb of their front lawn, for others, it may be near the front of the house or in a flower bed.
"If you can't get the water turned off, we will. That's probably driving a lot of the demand right now is broken pipes," Cosgrove says. "We feel bad for people who have broken pipes, we just don't want to make the situation worse for everyone else."
He says Plano will send a crew to shut off water if necessary, but the city is now dealing with a backlog of calls. People can find phone numbers and additional information here.