So ain’t nobody gonna mention the water boil issue in Houston?

I heard the power outage happened when about 2 million TV sets turned off the Texans game in unison after that FG that ended the first half 30-0. The sudden excess power blew many transformers.

 

I hope it’s a quick, painless death.

 

So what's the deal? Did someone/something poop (or die) in a reservoir or something?

 

*10:30am Sunday, East Water Purification Plants 1 and 2 lost power. At 10:50am, Plant 3 lost power. Just before 11:00am, water pressure dipped below the regulatory level of 35 PSI at 21 water pressure monitoring sites. At 11:00am, pressure at 16 of those 21 sites dropped below the emergency regulatory level of 20 PSI. Pressure rebounded above 20 PSI in less than 2 minutes at 14 of the 16 locations. Remaining 2 locations rose above 20 PSI at 11:30am. For 5 of the 21 censors, they never fell below 20 PSI.

*Electrician arrived at 11:00am to troubleshoot the problem. Further investigation found 2 transformers at Plant 1 went offline due to a ground trip and current overload. The electrical (something) from Plant 3 also experienced a ground fault trip. Both Saber, the electrical contractor and CenterPoint Energy were on site to investigate how not one transformer faulted but the redundant transformer also failed. I’m being told, even when you have the grid providing power and your generator to step in, when these 2 transformers fail, it prevented power to the system. Power was restored to Plants 1 and 2 at 12:15pm Sunday. Power was restored to Plant 3 at 12:30pm. From 10:30am to 12:30pm. 21 censors, 16 of them fell below 20 PSI. 14 of the 16 stayed below for less than 2 minutes and 2 stayed below for 30 minutes. Power was restored at 12:30pm. Full water pressure was restored to all 3 plants by 3:30pm and all locations were back at 35 PSI. Further investigation and testing on the breakers, transformers, motors and (something) found a bad (something) in Plant 1 transformer. I’ve asked for a complete diagnostic review of the system.

*Issued BWA at somewhere around 6:00pm; 6:40pm is when that decision was made. Conversations with TCEQ were taking place from 2:43pm up until 6:40pm. At that point, based on the data, based on the censors, a BWA was issued. One reason it took that long, for 14 of the censors, they remained below than 20 PSI for less than 2 minutes and for 2 censors, they remained below 20 PSI for 30. A decision was made out of an abundance of caution. The notice was sent to the public at 6:44pm.

*TCEQ approved our water sampling plan at 10:41pm Sunday night. … Samples were pulled from 29 locations at 6:00am and 9:30am this morning. All samples arrived at the lab by 9:45am. The samples will incubate for at least 18 hours per state regulations. The first reads of the samples will be taken at 3:00am. Those results will be sent to TCEQ. … Optimistic results will come back clean. Our hope is we can give positive word late, late tonight or early tomorrow morning.


East Water purification plant provides water to pretty much the city as a whole with the exception of Kingwood and Clear Lake (Clear Lake City Water Authority).

Why did redundancy’s not take over?

First transformer failed and redundant one was the 2nd transformer which coincidentally also failed. There were 2 transformers. One was the backup to the first. They both failed. When you have the 2 that failed, one was the backup, and you can’t connect to grid but the power is running and you can’t connect to your generators, then you have a very unique and unfortunate situation.

Why no information?

This is a situation where you had 21 censors, after a power disruption, 21 censors indicated the power dropped below 35 PSI. That doesn’t trigger a BWN. The PSI’s didn’t drop automatically when the power was disrupted. It was during the course of the day. When 21 censors dropped, it didn’t trigger a BWN. When 16 of those 20 dropped below 20 PSI and 14 dropped below PSI for 2 minutes, that’s not the thinking it was going to trigger. Less than 2 minutes for most of them, 30 minutes for 2. The thinking was it would not trigger the need for a BWN. There was no alarm. … Between 2:43pm and 6:40pm, the team was in collaboration with TCEQ. Everyone is looking at the data. A decision was made out of abundance of caution. Under the normal process, the city and county has 24 hours to issue a notice from the time of the incident. I understand people being angry. This was not being overlooked. Teams were in, electricians were in. Power was restored. CenterPoint was looking at it. We were in collaboration with TCEQ.

(Some lady) We had no indication the system had been infiltrated. No indication for contamination. It was at the end of the day, out of abundance of caution, the issuance needed to happen but no indication and still no indication that the system was compromised at any point. … We still have no indication we had any intrusion or anything that got into the system at all.

What time did it drop below regulatory levels?

(Lady) First censors alarmed at 10:58. Second censors(16 censors) alarmed at 11:00am it was below 21. At 11:02, 14 were above 20. At 11:30, the remaining 2 were above 20.

(Sylvester) February freeze was a different matter. You lost power and water and things were down for several days. We’re talking censors falling below PSI for 2 minutes. Let’s not compare February with this. We had 2 transformers malfunction. … It was 2 transformers. People are looking for other things out there. There were 2 transformers that failed. The team was on it. The electrician was out there within 30 minutes. CenterPoint was also out there. … After looking at the data, out of abundance of caution, we did it.

Backup generators, 32 at that plant, available and ready but not turned it. Did you request they turn them on?

(Lady) No, did not request the backup generators be turned on. Our primary feed was still up and providing electricity. The failure was inside the plant between the supply side and getting to our treatment facility. Even if they were on, we would’ve had the same problem. Our primary focus was getting those transformers reset. We did not call for backup generators but they would have not made a difference. Supply of power was not the issue.

(Sylvester) Because the 2nd transformer was the backup to the 1st and also failed, I’ve ordered a diagnostic review and assess what took place there.

What specifically did the power outage affect? The treatment process or ability to pump out water to the system?

(Lady) Both. …

Nothing on-site that could’ve prevented that interruption?

One question we’ll be working with forensics. The feed fed the entire plant and those pumps. Do they need to be evaluated different?

(Sylvester) That was the question I asked. When I got the call and told me there was a power disruption, I asked did the generators kick on? “No, they didn’t kick on.” I asked “Why?” They said transformers malfunctioned. I asked “Why?” I’ve asked Houston Public Works for a diagnostic review. The 2nd transformer was intended to backup the first. …

Plan to distribute water? If not, why not?

If certain areas or facilities need water, we’ll do our best to make it available but this is not like the winter storm when you lost power and water. You can boil your water and move forward.

When it’s lifted, piece meal or city wide?

Entire city.

Does TCEQ issue the BWN?

(Lady) City of Houston issues the BWN but in consultation with TCEQ and as owner of the utility, we actually issue it and why we did so at 6:47pm.

Potential when PSI falls that low?

(Lady) That is the potential for contaminants. …

 

That’s government work for you. Reactive.

Like the Pearland city manager who had the wrong formula on a spreadsheet and caused the city to over budget by 10m. I bet they won’t trust that job to one person again.

 

u r a robot

 

They say there was already another poorly named threat BUT, IIIII say it's because 99% of yall jabronis live in Katy or Clear Lake or Kemah and not HTINE.

 

Anyone else keep forgetting to boil water for everyday tasks. Just used my waterpik…….so I basically shot bacteria into my mouth and between my teeth. And I always have the pressure set to ten. I wish it went to eleven.

 

I see school and work is canceled again for Tuesday. Is there no news from the city yet whether we will get the all clear, or do we really need to wait till 3 am?

 

Nice knowing you bro

 

Thank goodness Sheila Jackson Lee was at the press conference. Was wondering if this was getting attention from Washington.

 

TCEQ being involved should scare you more than anything else.

 

I don't see what the big damn deal is. I grew up slurping water from a hose in the yard. The permanent amoebas I have living in my gut will destroy anything CoH throws my direction.

 

Trust it to two people and all you'll get is 2 people agreeing on a 10m error.

 

Why not both?

 

blame the transformers