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Residents in Magnolia neighborhood spend days without water
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with residents living in Indigo Ranch who went several days without water in their neighborhood.
HOUSTON - Residents who live in Indigo Ranch got their water back Wednesday afternoon, but now they're under a boil water notice.
Collin Scherer is one of many Indigo Ranch residents who spent most of last week with no water.
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"It's not fun," he said. "We've got to try to plan ahead."
"It was kind of scary, especially with the horses here," said Indigo Ranch resident, Cara Magliocco. "We had no power. I couldn't keep them in the barn with fans, they had to be turned out."
"We have to water the chickens and the dogs with bottled water we have to purchase. We don't shower, luckily we have the pool, that's all we can do," said Indigo Ranch resident, Amanda Muhlbeier. "Using the restroom has to be filled with water from the pool."
Aqua Water has a generator for the water plant, but it wasn't hooked up.
"For about the last four years, I've been trying to get them to have an emergency backup generator permanently," said Collin.
In a response, Aqua Water says the generator was scheduled to go live last week and then Beryl struck.
A portable generator was brought in, but it ran out of fuel. Collin says it happens a lot.
"I would say quarterly," he said.
"This has happened multiple times this year," said Cara.
"They'll tell somebody that it's been taken care of when it hasn't or there is no service report when there's no water still," said Amanda. "It's just so many conflicting things."
"It takes days sometimes to get any action out here," said Collin.
"I would like them to communicate with us better. I would like for them to make sure the generator was actually hooked up. If it's not hooked up, then just communicate that with us," Cara said.
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In a statement to FOX 26, Aqua Texas said, "Below is a timeline of water service restoration for the Indigo Ranch community. While we are not required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to have a generator at this system, due to its size, our team knows the importance of system resiliency and placed a permanent generator at the water plant proactively. Installation of the generator had taken months of planning. The permanent generator was scheduled to come online the week Hurricane Beryl struck. The hook-up was postponed and a portable generator was placed in the meantime, until the permanent generator was connected on Friday, July 12.
- Monday July 8: The power failed due to Hurricane Beryl. We contacted contractors to secure a portable generator. ETA of the generator was Thursday, July 11.
- Tuesday July 9: We contacted additional sources to secure a generator more quickly without success.
- Wednesday July 10: The portable generator arrived early and was hooked up to the water system, restoring water late Wednesday evening.
- Thursday July 11: The portable generator was refueled and work began on hooking up the permanent generator.
- Friday July 12: The permanent generator was put online, and the portable generator was disconnected.
- Saturday July 13: The onsite generator was checked and had fuel.
- Sunday July 14: The onsite generator continued to keep the plant operating.
- Monday July 15: The onsite generator was checked for fuel and was still in operation.
- Tuesday July 16: The onsite generator continued to operate the plant.
- Wednesday July 17: The generator ran out of fuel around 7:30 AM. The generator was refueled at approximately 9:45 AM and water was restored. During the refill, the operator found that the generator fuel gauge was not accurate, and a contractor was contacted to make the correction."