The city of Plano sent a plea to residents Sunday evening asking them to conserve water through the middle of the week. The request is due to emergency maintenance being performed by the North Texas Municipal Water District through Wednesday.
City officials are asking residents to focus their conservation efforts on outdoor use. They should only water foundations, trees and shrubs through the first half of the week. By Thursday they should be able to resume their normal watering schedules.
Officials emphasize that the conservation request is due to water production quantity, not water quality. Plano’s water supply remains safe for drinking
According to a release from the North Texas Municipal Water District, the NTMWD Wylie Water Treatment Plant Complex had to stop producing water at one of its four water treatment plants on Saturday. Critical maintenance must be completed before that plant can resume its full purification capacity.
“The critical maintenance involves six sedimentation basins at the plant which take particles out of the water during the treatment process. These six basins help in the production of 210 million gallons of water per day,” an NTMWD spokesperson said in the release. “Due to peak water demands by customers, the accumulation of sediment has accelerated and impacted the ability for the plant to efficiently process water through the treatment process.”
The NTMWD spokesperson added that the systems’ purification capacity remains adequate for household use and public safety. However, current drought conditions, as well as increased outdoor water use and irrigation, have stressed the system, necessitating the call for increased conservation efforts
