Letter from the Board

From your Board of Directors:

     The Board is pleased to announce the completion of leak repairs to the Finch well site which is expected to significantly reduce the amount of water loss each month. We have also addressed the recent TCEQ requirement to develop an Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP). This is the result of state wide issues regarding power outages during last winter’s big freeze event. The purpose of the EPP is to ensure adequate backup power sources to continue operation of our well sites without interruption of safe water supplies to our members.

     What does this mean for Medina customers? It’s fairly simple. For water corporations of our size, we just need to make arrangements for backup power. We intend to do this through the purchase and installation of emergency generators at our two well sites. Your Board is currently working on a grant proposal to cover most or all of the cost of this project. We have submitted our first report to the Public utilities Commission of Texas and our EPP has to be submitted to TCEQ by 1 March, 2022, and implemented by 1 July, 2022. Obviously, this is after the upcoming winter season.

     The Board will move as rapidly as possible to implement an EPP prior to these mandated dates however, we need support from our members so that we can avoid problems this winter. As you may recall, during the extreme freeze event of this past February, we came very close to a disruption of water supply from the Finch water plant. The problem was mostly caused by the significant increase in customer water usage to the point that the well pumps could not refill the water tower fast enough. To illustrate, this plant produces an average of 30,000 gallons per day. We have a total of 260 customers but all are not serviced by the Finch plant as some are serviced by the Stringtown plant. 177 customers are routinely served by the Finch plant so that would average out to about 170 gals/customer available per day not including the nearly 40,000 stored at the beginning of the event.

     What caused the high usage? You might think it was because we kept our water faucets dripping so our home lines wouldn’t freeze up. Actually, we think the biggest loss of water came from frozen and broken water lines. Many customers did not promptly repair these breaks because of the weather and the lack of repair supplies we experienced in the area.

     What can we do to make sure we don’t experience this problem again? Here’s where our customers can help. It’s November and the weather is starting to cool. Now is the best time to make preparations to winterize your water delivery systems. You should consider insulating any exposed water lines and hoses with inexpensive foam tubes available from hardware stores. There are commercial covers for faucets but old towels wrapped around them will also work. Water lines in unheated indoor areas can be protected during the coldest period with heat lamps. If a water line does fail because of freezing weather, please shut the water off to that line and arrange for repairs as soon as possible. Likewise, excessive leaks in the system can drop the pressure in the lines requiring us to issue a boil-water notice.  Please help us conserve water so that no one goes without during an extreme freeze event.

On behalf of the Board of the Medina Water Supply Corporation, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Dan Poston

President, MWSC Board of Directors