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Special Austin City Council meeting to be held to discuss citywide boil water notice

By Lisette Lopez
Published  February 10, 2022 5:25pm CST
Travis County
FOX 7 Austin

AUSTIN, Texas - A special Austin City Council meeting has been set to discuss the citywide boil water notice. It will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 9 a.m.

Councilmember Paige Ellis said this will provide the opportunity to councilmembers and city staff to address publicly how the citywide boil water notice happened and plans to prevent a similar event in the future.

"Austinites deserve a safe, reliable, and resilient water system in which they can have full confidence," said Councilmember Paige Ellis. "After last year’s winter storm, the latest freeze, and two years of an ongoing pandemic, this latest boil water notice really hit a nerve for folks in Austin. My goal for this meeting is to begin to rebuild trust between our city’s core services and the community."

Austin was under a boil water notice for about four days, beginning the evening of Saturday, Feb. 5. The next day, Sunday, Feb. 6, Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros announced the cause of the system failure to be due to employee error. 

Austin Water lifts boil water notice for majority of customers

Austin Water has lifted the boil water notice after four days for a majority of people in Travis County but some wholesale customers are still not in the clear.

The special called meeting is the first in several announced steps by members of city council. Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter called for an external audit of Austin Water, and council member Vanessa Fuentes announced her intention to hold hearings at the Austin Water Oversight Committee (AWOC), which she chairs.

"I am committed to investigating what led to both the recent boil notice and the pattern of systemic issues with Austin Water," said Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter, who is sponsoring an upcoming City Council resolution calling for an external audit of the water utility. "Determining the cause of these issues and implementing recommended changes and actions from an independent third party auditor is key to preventing something like this from happening again and holding Austin Water accountable."

You can find the upcoming dates and times for future meetings below: 

  • Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, 9 a.m.: Special Called Meeting of the Austin City Council
  • Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, 10 a.m.: Regular Meeting of the Austin City Council and consideration of MPT’s Audit Resolution
  • Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, 1:30 p.m.: Austin Water Oversight Committee meeting

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MORE HEADLINES: 
Austin Water lifts boil water notice for majority of customers
Explaining what 'turbidity' is, and why it caused a citywide boil water notice
Drinking water never contaminated during four-day Austin boil notice
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