Looking at the aftermath of the boil water notice
Published 5:40 pm Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Judging by social media traffic some Port Arthur residents were curious why some restaurants stayed open and others closed during last week’s boil water notice issued due to low water pressure.
Restaurants such as Luby’s, Chili’s and Firehouse Subs closed due to water issues. Others had to make adjustments.
Health inspectors and the boil water notice
Lacy Brown, senior sanitarian for the city of Port Arthur, said this wasn’t the first time the city’s water utilities issued a boil water notice, but this one was citywide.
Water utilities, additionally, notify Brown immediately, even if it’s for a small area of the city.
The last time such an extensive boil water notice was issued in Port Arthur was in November 2015 when a water main broke, but not as widespread.
Likewise, environmental and consumer health services issued a guidance for retail food establishments under a boil water notice from Texas Health and Human Services this go around on the city’s webpage.
“We keep contact with the establishments, especially after (Tropical Storm) Harvey and after disasters. A lot of corporations have their own (health guidance) plans in place,” she said. “Some discuss this with their upper management and decide to stay open. Others determined not to open, like full service restaurants.”
Brown said establishments may always call them for information.
“We can educate them and check their contingency plans,” she said.
Brown said full service restaurants, such as Luby’s, couldn’t use single-service items because too many serving utensils would need cleaning. One option was to close.
Some fast food restaurants eating areas closed while the drive-throughs remained opened. Brown said the hot water was needed to be saved to wash the employees hands while there wasn’t enough hot water for the customers.
Future plans are to use the city’s Facebook page, the city’s website and media and developing a notification system to alert restaurants’ corporate offices to get information out.
Brown and Sanitarian Nathaniel Collins inspect more than 300 restaurants, school cafeterias, nursing homes and hospitals in the city.
“The city of Port Arthur and the health department takes all situations seriously that affect the public health and respond in a timely manner,” Brown said. “We’re here to assist the establishments. They’re also responsible for maintaining (public health). We enforce what’s not being maintained and we’re always educating.”
Pipes in Mid-County cities
While the city of Port Arthur dealt with breaks in their water main lines the Mid-County area cities dealt with minor issues and no boil water issue.
Chris Duque, Nederland city manager, said there were two breaks, but not enough to issue a boil water notice. The staff at the water plant stayed on top of the weather issue.
“We did have a large amount of calls from citizens requesting for us to do shut-offs on their lines because of leaks in their homes,” Duque said.
Groves had no boil water notice and no major city lines burst, but some residents saw water line breaks.
“Most of the breaks were people trying to repair damage from the (tropical storm) Harvey flood and some of their pipes burst,” D. Sosa, Groves city manager, said. “We were doing a lot of work to shut off their service at the meter to mitigate or limit the damage.”
Port Neches said 70 service line broke, that are the smaller lines that go to homes.
No boil water notice was issued and the city crews were able to address the leaks fairly quickly, Port Neches City Manager Andre Wimer said.