Update: Austin's boil-water notice has been lifted. Find out more here.
Original story:
Austin Water officials say the water utility is on track to end its boil-water notice by Sunday evening at the latest.
At a press conference Friday, Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros said the utility is "recovering nicely," but that Austin Water customers should continue conserving water by cutting their normal usage by a recommended 20 percent.
"We’re expecting that we’re going to lift the boil water notice on Sunday, probably something in the afternoon to early evening, and it’s not a guarantee but we feel really positive where we are right now," Meszaros said at Roy G. Guerrero Park, one of the city's sites for water distribution.
On Sunday morning, the utility continued to express optimism that the boil notice would be lifted by the end of the day.
We’re gathering testing results and working with TCEQ closely. We’ll notify the public once we’re able to lift the boil water notice for all Austin Water customers. While we remain optimistic it will be later today, we need to complete the process before making any announcement.
— Austin Water (@AustinWater) October 28, 2018
Per state law, Austin Water is required to test water throughout the system and submit the samples for approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality before ending the order.
Still, Meszaros said, the utility will keep asking customers to cut down on water-use by 20 percent through early next week.
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"We don't want people to, for lack of a better term, to go crazy and just start using water," he said. "We understand water-use is going to trend up a little bit. ... But we do just want to ask people to be as cautious as they reasonably can with water-use before they start stepping on the gas again."
Austin Water is ordering customers within its service area to boil water for three minutes before consuming it. The city is offering free bottled water for those with special needs at locations below.
On Thursday, Mayor Steve Adler signed a declaration of disaster for the city, making Austin eligible to be reimbursed for disaster-related expenses.
The Lower Colorado River Authority reopened Lake Buchanan to the public Friday. Lakes Travis, Inks, Marble Falls and LBJ are closed to public use until at least Tuesday after historic flooding along the Colorado River watershed. The City of Austin has banned recreation in waterways within the city until Monday.
This story has been updated.
