Lessons from Uri
How texas rural water systems responded to this winter's catastrophe.
In 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. As temperatures plummeted on Sunday, February 14, 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.
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 freezing temperatures 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 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,” said Dave McMurry, General Manager of Aqua WSC.
In an attempt to conserve energy, power companies statewide began putting customers on rolling blackouts, including water and wastewater utilities. Even at systems with reserves on hand, fueling was Some systems were put on rolling blackouts while becoming an issue when it became clear that the storm Texas on Tap — July 2021 11
