Important Water Quality Update – Effects of Flooding and Ongoing Treatment Efforts

Dear Members,

We want to provide you with an update on current water conditions and what to expect moving forward, especially in light of the recent flooding across Central Texas.

Many of you may have already noticed some discoloration or tint in your water. This is primarily due to two ongoing issues:

1. Scouring of our pipelines from elevated chlorine levels, which is necessary for disinfection.
2. Recent flooding, which is now introducing additional challenges to our water treatment process.

While these are two separate causes, they result in the same outcome: increased turbidity (cloudiness in the water), which can lead to coloration due to the presence of natural minerals like manganese and iron. These minerals get stirred up in the lake during flooding and enter our raw water supply.

We want to reassure you that we are fully aware of the situation and are taking every possible step to mitigate the effects. Our treatment plant is currently facing additional strain, especially in the clarification stage—this is the part of the process that prepares the water before it is filtered. When turbidity levels rise, this step becomes more difficult and time-consuming.

Additionally, our supplemental water supply from CTWSC remains good in quality, but their capacity to assist is also limited due to the same regional treatment challenges.

Here’s what we are doing to address the situation:

• System flushing to remove discolored water from the lines
• Maintaining higher chlorine residuals to ensure disinfection
• Slowing down the treatment process to allow for better clarification and filtration

These measures do involve higher operational costs, but we are doing everything we can to manage resources wisely and minimize the impact on you, our members.

It’s important to understand that this is not an isolated issue—the entire Central Texas region is dealing with similar problems due to the unusual and intense rain events and flooding. The Lampasas River, which is one of our key sources, has been directly affected by the flooding. While you may not hear much about it publicly, many water systems in the area are struggling, and some have already issued boil water notices.

At this time, we do not anticipate the need for a boil water notice for our system. However, we will continue monitoring the situation closely and will communicate immediately if anything changes.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this challenge. Please know that we are committed to providing you with the safest water possible under these difficult circumstances.