Attention Prairie Grove Customers:
Our operations staff have been made aware of a water leak at the end of IR Hannah Rd and are planning to make the repair on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
During this time, you may experience short periods of lower-than-normal water pressure. Operations staff will be working diligently to make this repair as quickly as possible. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at (936) 632-7795 if you have any questions.
To All Prairie Grove Water Customers: ANRA has been made aware of a water leak on FM 1818 near Gossett Rd and is planning to make the repair on Monday, November 6, 2023. During the course of the repair, you may experience short periods of low water pressure. Operations staff will be working diligently to complete this repair as quickly as possible and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. Please do not hesitate to contact us at (936) 632-7795 if you have any questions.
The following customer notice is required by the TCEQ as a result of the non-compliances associated with Disinfection Byproducts Monitoring. This customer notice has also been mailed directly to every active water customer of the utility.
On August 11, 2023, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) required the Prairie Grove Utilities public water system (PWS ID Number 0030027) to issue a Boil Water Notice to inform customers, individuals, or employees that due to conditions which occurred recently in the public water system, the water from this public water system was required to be boiled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
Prairie Grove Utilities has taken the necessary corrective actions to restore the quality of the water distributed by Prairie Grove Utilities used for drinking water or human consumption purposes and has provided TCEQ with laboratory test results that indicate that the water no longer requires boiling prior to use as of August 15, 2023.
If you have questions concerning this matter, you may contact Mr. Chris Key, P.E., Executive Manager, Utilities, Angelina & Neches River Authority at (936) 632-7795 or (800) 282-5634. If you wish to contact TCEQ, you may call (512) 239-4691.
August 11, 2023
To: Prairie Grove Utilities Customers (Public Water System ID # 0030027)
Subject: BOIL WATER NOTIFICATION
Due to low water pressures in the water distribution system, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has required the Prairie Grove Utilities public water system (PWS ID Number 0030027) to notify all customers to boil their water prior to consumption (e.g., washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking, etc.). Children, seniors, and persons with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria, and all customers should follow these directions.
To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking, and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes. The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for two minutes. In lieu of boiling, individuals may purchase bottled water or obtain water from some other suitable source for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, Prairie Grove Utilities officials will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking or human consumption purposes. Once the boil water notice is no longer in effect, Prairie Grove Utilities will issue a notice to customers that rescinds the boil water notice in a manner similar to this notice.
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
If you have questions concerning this matter, you may contact Mr. Chris Key, P.E., Executive Manager, Utilities, Angelina & Neches River Authority at (936) 632-7795 or (800) 282-5634. If you wish to contact TCEQ, you may call (512) 239-4691.
The following customer notice is required by the TCEQ as a result of the non-compliances associated with Disinfection Byproducts Monitoring. This customer notice has also been mailed directly to every active water customer of the utility.
On June 17, 2023, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) required the Prairie Grove Utilities public water system (PWS ID Number 0030027) to issue a Boil Water Notice to inform customers, individuals, or employees that due to conditions which occurred recently in the public water system, the water from this public water system was required to be boiled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
Prairie Grove Utilities has taken the necessary corrective actions to restore the quality of the water distributed by Prairie Grove Utilities used for drinking water or human consumption purposes and has provided TCEQ with laboratory test results that indicate that the water no longer requires boiling prior to use as of June 21, 2023.
If you have questions concerning this matter, you may contact Mr. Chris Key, P.E., Executive Manager, Utilities, Angelina & Neches River Authority at (936) 632-7795 or (800) 282-5634.
If you wish to contact TCEQ, you may call (512) 239-4691.
June 17, 2023
To: Prairie Grove Utilities Customers (Public Water System ID # 0030027)
Subject: BOIL WATER NOTIFICATION
Due to low water pressures in the water distribution system, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has required the Prairie Grove Utilities public water system (PWS ID Number 0030027) to notify all customers to boil their water prior to consumption (e.g., washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking, etc.). Children, seniors, and persons with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria, and all customers should follow these directions.
To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking, and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes. The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for two minutes. In lieu of boiling, individuals may purchase bottled water or obtain water from some other suitable source for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, Prairie Grove Utilities officials will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking or human consumption purposes. Once the boil water notice is no longer in effect, Prairie Grove Utilities will issue a notice to customers that rescinds the boil water notice in a manner similar to this notice.
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
If you have questions concerning this matter, you may contact Mr. Chris Key, P.E., Executive Manager, Utilities, Angelina & Neches River Authority at (936) 632-7795 or (800) 282-5634.
If you wish to contact TCEQ, you may call 512-239-4691.
Update Saturday 12pm:
Since our last post, we’ve been carefully monitoring the tank levels, and unfortunately, they’re sticking very close to the worst case forecast that we provided yesterday afternoon.
If current demand levels continue, the tanks will be below 7 ft at 11pm tonight. (Tanks are full at 17 ft, and are at 11 ft at the time of this message)
Safety’s built into the tank fill controls shut the system down once it gets too low.
Unless something drastic changes between now and then, our plan is to shut the system down at 9pm to allow it to recover overnight and have it back on at 7 am tomorrow morning for showers and the like. We will likely need to either shut it down again midday Sunday or overnight between Sunday and Monday, but we will make that determination after we see the demand Sunday morning.
The more we can conserve today, the better off we’re going to be. If any of your friends or neighbors are not on social media seeing these messages, please let them know whats going on, and everyone please, please discontinue any outdoor water use.
We’ll post an update this evening or as needed.
As always, we appreciate your understanding, patience, and help with these conservation measures.
Good afternoon Prairie Grove:
It’s officially summer. It’s hot and it’s dry, and lots of folks are spending time outside using water. Unfortunately, just like last summer, that means we’re exceeding the capacity of the system to supply water.
Over the past week, the storage tanks at the Sherwood Forest well have been starting each day about a half foot lower than the day before – and the problem is accelerating.
As we’ve said before, even without this increased usage, the well is unable to supply enough water for needs during the day, but it is generally able to recover overnight when usage is low. Unfortunately, as daily demand increases, it has outstripped the ability of the well to fully replenish the tank levels overnight.
Unless we all begin immediately practicing the protocol in the Stage 5 Drought Contingency Plan that was implemented in the Summer of 2022 (which has remained active), then we will almost certainly have a system shutdown before the weekend is over.
We’ve provided a graph of the Ground Storage Tank levels over the past two weeks (blue line). Based on this pattern and expected demand, we’ve projected (orange line) that levels will likely bottom out very quickly over the weekend. Once the system drops below eight feet (red line), we’ve reached the critical point and we must shut down the system to allow it to fully recover.
PGU Emergency Operations 2023-06-16 both with legend - Copy
We have partially closed the outgoing valves from the plant to approximately 15% of normal levels to attempt to slow the demand, but that will not be enough. It will take your help as well.
Some things we MUST all begin doing immediately to prevent the system going into emergency operations mode, which will include temporary shutdowns of the system as we have seen over the past few years, include:
- Stop all unnecessary outdoor water usage, such as car washing, landscape irrigation, pool filling, and other recreational activities
- Conserve water indoors by taking short showers, turning off water when not in use (such as when brushing your teeth), and
- Check for leaks, running toilets, and any other unintentional water use
The full Drought Contingency Plan can be found here: https://www.anra.org/conservation-recreation/water-conservation-drought-contingency-planning/regional-water-planning/
We know you want to fill up your pool and you need to water your plants, but unfortunately, as you all are very well aware, the current system is simply unable to handle the demand. This is one of many issues that we will be able to put behind us once the system upgrades are completed, but it’s still a problem for today.
What about the temporary line from Diboll that we have previously discussed as a stopgap until the full upgrade project is in place? That plan has been ready to go for some time, but has been delayed due to difficulties in obtaining landowner permissions to run the line.
We had hoped to have the line in place before the summer demand, but in order to control costs and protect the line from vehicles, it needs to run cross-country on the private property to the north of Sherwood Forest Circle. We have been diligently attempting to contact the land owner to obtain a temporary easement for many months, but despite multiple communication attempts, including phone calls from ANRA’s attorney, we have yet to receive a response to have that conversation. At this point, we are very close to being forced to initiate eminent domain procedures, which can take significant amounts of time and which typically leaves everyone involved very unhappy. This is not how we prefer to approach these issues, but it may be a necessary step in order to provide PGU customers with the water that you all need.
We want to THANK YOU in advance for your understanding and participation in these conservation measures. By conserving water, you’ll help provide a better chance that all PGU customers will be able to continue to have access to water for essential purposes.
Our staff is continuously monitoring the situation and we will continue to post updates on the Prairie Grove Facebook page, our website at www.anra.org, and via the Text Notification System, throughout the weekend. If you would like to sign up for the Text Notification System, please text “PGU” to (800) 282-5634 and follow the prompts.