BLANCO, Texas – Alex Hartman picked up a broom Tuesday morning, readying the coffee and gelato shop where she works for the customers she expected to start trickling in to the 419.
This was after her business — and others throughout the City of Blanco — shut down early due to a water outage on Monday afternoon.
“Basically, no water, no hand washing, no dishes,” Hartman said, describing conditions they endured the day before. “We had just the barest drip.”
Hartman said she and her co-workers received a slight heads-up about the outage when the trouble first started.
They quickly began filling up pitchers with clean water in an attempt to keep their doors open as long as possible.
“And after that was gone, we were out of commission,” Hartman said.
Just down the street at Blanco Pharmacy and Wellness, though, employees were caught off guard by the water main break.
They also closed shop early Monday when they realized they couldn’t fill their orders for compounded prescriptions.
Robin Jenkins said she also found she couldn’t get any business done at home, including bathing.
“So, just waited ‘til this morning,” Jenkins said. “I still have dishes in the sink.”
Jenkins said she planned to tackle her household chores on Tuesday during her lunch break from the pharmacy.
The source of their troubles, it seems, began in the middle of downtown.
Mayor Mike Arnold said it started as a crew was working to replace a faulty fire hydrant.
“When they were working on it, the line snapped where it connects to the water main,” Arnold said. “We don’t have a valve to be able to isolate this area. And so, in order to repair it, they had to drain the entire system.”
Around 300,000 gallons of water drained out of the city’s water system into the Blanco River, Arnold said.
As a result, the entire city was left high and dry.
A crew worked late into the night Monday, repairing the broken valve.
By Tuesday morning, they had the problem fixed and service restored.
However, the city remains under a boil water notice until tests results indicate it is safe, Arnold said.
Because of that, a handful of shops remained closed throughout the day Tuesday.
Arnold said it initially appeared that the water main, made out of asbestos concrete, had broken.
Had that happened, Arnold said the water outage would have lasted longer because it would have taken longer to make repairs.
Arnold said, just in case, he had a truckload of potable water ready to disburse to residents.
Private companies and Johnson City officials also had offered to help with supplies, he said.
According to people in Blanco, water main breaks and outages are nothing new.
Arnold also admitted that there are ongoing problems with the city’s water system, mainly due to the crumbling infrastructure.
Arnold said that, coincidentally, there is a measure on the ballot this May that will help to address the issue. The measure calls for the issuance of more than $16 million in bonds.
“That’s one of the first priorities to replace those aging mainlines and put in valves so we can shut off and isolate areas,” Arnold said.
The goal, Arnold said, is to wash away these water line problems for good.
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