A boil water order in North Fort Worth was lifted for some customers Friday afternoon, the city says. Several smaller cities nearby were still affected.
The city clarified the order was only lifted for customers in north Fort Worth. Residents in Haslet, Keller, Lake Worth, Northlake, Roanoke, Saginaw, Southlake, Trophy Club and Westlake must check with their water providers, the city said.
Each city would have to get individual clearance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
Other boil advisories, including West Fort Worth and Arlington, may not be rescinded until at least Saturday.
"Sunday may be the earliest that we’re able to do anything on the west side," Mary Gugliuzza with the city of Fort Worth Water Utility said. "But it is also dependent on TCEQ giving the approval to lift the notice."
Gugliuzza said other factors include adequate water pressure. This week, the city has reported at least 293 water main breaks. At its peak on Wednesday, there were 121 in a single day.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"We’re still dealing with the situation," she said. "The numbers seem to be trending down as far as new ones coming in. We have contractors assisting our own crews with making the repairs."
Aside from the boil water notices, many in the city have also been without water. Though water main breaks may impact outages, it would only be a few blocks and not widespread.
"No one on the northside should be without water," Gugliuzza said. "The other problem with this is, some people are without water because their private plumbing is frozen. It has nothing to do with us."
A state official said the water is unsafe to drink for 13 million Texans – nearly half the state.
In North Fort Worth, the city had opened a number of distribution sites at fire stations and at a middle school where people could get free bottled water.
Thousands of drivers showed up.
"It's been an experience. I've been driving around trying to find water,” one woman said Thursday.
In neighborhoods still digging out from the cold and lucky enough to have power, there's no drinkable water – and bottled water is hard to find in any store.
"Just dealing with the water is tricky, you know,” said Jennifer Flory, a North Fort Worth mother of three. “You want to make sure you're not making anybody sick and keeping everybody healthy in the house. It's not an easy or fun thing to do I guess."
Moon represents the part of the city impacted by the water boil notice.
"Never should a Fort Worth resident be thirsty or be cold. And those are calls we are taking in our office, 'I am thirsty. I am cold.' And that should not happen in Fort Worth," Moon said Thursday.
The city's water department blamed the problem in North Fort Worth on a power outage that knocked out a major treatment facility and a perfect storm of other weather-related issues.
Moon said the city and the state need to study what went wrong and fix it.
"We're going to make corrections to make sure this doesn't happen again,” he said.
To assist residents who are without consumable water, four Fort Worth fire stations are open to distribute water in the impacted area:
- Station 9, 2575 Polaris Drive
- Station 31, 4209 Longstraw Drive
- Station 38, 13280 Park Vista Blvd.
- Station 41, 11400 Willow Springs Road
Residents can also pick up water at these school locations:
Northside –
- Trinity Springs Middle School, 3550 Keller Hicks Road
- Sendera Elementary, 1216 Diamondback Lane
- Comanche Springs Elementary, 8063 Comanche Springs Drive
- Willow Creek Elementary, 1100 W. McLeroy Blvd.
Westside –
- RD Evans Community Center, 3242 Lackland Road (starts Friday)
- Western Hills High School, 3600 Boston Ave.
- Birchman Baptist Church, 9100 North Normandale St. (starts Friday)
Breweries around Fort Worth are also offering free water to residents. People need to bring their own containers to fill up.
For a full list, click here.
