Utility companies urge water conservation as cities continue to see leaks
JACKSON, Tenn. – With temperatures preparing to decrease over the weekend, several utility companies are urging customers to help them preserve water.
Since the winter storm, several cities have been experiencing water leaks.
The majority of the leaks have been due to broken pipes at several residences.
Lexington Utilities General Manager Justin Roach stated that over 200 customers wanted them to turn their water off.
“We’re anticipating a five-degree night tomorrow night. So there, again, customers’ water lines will be freezing again and we’ll kind of continue this cycle,” Roach said.
For those who are not exactly sure how this happens, Roach explained how water is lost during water leaks.
“Each water is hooked up to our meter and each house can run anywhere from eight to 15 gallons a minute. So if a water line breaks at your house, it could run 15 gallons a minute of water out,” Roach said.
This has not only affected a few homes in Lexington but also farmers who have livestock to feed.
Roach stated that they did not leave them out of the plan.
“We try to keep in contact with them to let them know. We put it on the Facebook post that they can come up here and fill up any kind of tank to feed their livestock,” Roach said. “So we will put out a precautionary boil water notice just to make sure that anything for human consumption, you should boil.”
Stephen Sutton, the EMS Director for Crockett County, stated that they are under a boil water notice as of Thursday for 24 hours.
“The City of Friendship, and the water district, and then the Mayor Casey Burnett is asking all citizens to help them by conserving water this afternoon, this evening through the night, and then those operations should resume as normal tomorrow,” Sutton said.
Sutton stated that most of the issues they have had were taken care of quickly.
“We haven’t had any other outages except for a small power outage yesterday just for about 15-20 minutes, and it affected about 1,500 people. Gibson Electric is just wonderful to work with and they were able to get that power restored in no time,” Sutton said.
The Gibson County Municipal Water District has also issued a boil water notice for the Griers Chapel and Yorkville areas.
In the Hardin County area, in Adamsville, a boil water notice has been issued.
The Savannah Utility Department also says that all water customers should boil water. Read more here.
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