A steady number of Aubrey residents drove up to the Aubrey Fire Department on Tuesday to receive a free case of water during the city’s boil water notice.
The notice was issued on Monday night after an older waterline broke, and Bailey Thompson, the assistant to the city manager, shared how the city has handled the unexpected issue.
“The city is doing the best we can to resolve the situation as fast as possible,” she said. “Because this was an older water main break, … and because we’ve been servicing that area to reinforce the infrastructure we currently have, it was definitely a harder and more complex situation than what we thought it was going to be.”
Aubrey staff was grateful for the residents’ patience as they sought to resolve the problem.
“When people think about a main break, they may not know the complexity of the infrastructure that [Public Works is] having to service,” Thompson said. “But those guys, they’re drenched in water. And it’s a tough job. And I applaud them for the hard work that they put into the main break.” Austin Gress, Emergency Management Coordinator, explained the waterline break was fixed on Monday night, but that was a connected but separate issue from the boil notice.
“Because it drained some of the water tanks, we just have to make sure everything is back up to pressure,” he said. “… So right now, it’s just precautionary, making sure all the water is up to code and making sure that it’s safer for human consumption.”
As of Tuesday, the city staff members said they hoped the water test would come back with the “allclear” on Wednesday, and it was not expected to last the remainder of the week.
However, the exact time frame was unclear.
Staci Zenner said she received a text earlier that day alerting her about the boil water notice.
“All of a sudden, the water was just low,” she said. “So it’s like, ‘OK, what’s going on?’” Zenner described how the boil water notice impacted her family.
“We had to go buy some water,” she said. “We’ve had to boil to wash our hands, brush our teeth, and it’s kind of inconvenient, but I understand if it’s something that has to happen, we’ll have to get through it.”
She also learned more information on the city’s Facebook page.
“I think their notification process could have been a little bit better of letting us all know because we had no clue, and some of us have young kids, so that is not good,” Zenner said.
Gress said the best way to stay up to date with emergencies and alerts in the Aubrey area is through the city’s social media accounts, the website and local news outlets. To get alerts for emergencies like these, along with weather and other alerts, through text message, go to aubreytx.gov/ list.aspx to sign up for the text message and email alerts.
