Since Tuesday of last week, the citizens of Killeen have been under a city-wide boil water notice due to low chlorine levels in the city’s water supply.
For days now people in Killeen have been asking one question, when will this boil water notice be lifted? It’s a problem that officials have been working with the water district, WCID, around the clock to fix.
Well, a lot of people on the eastern side of the city finally got the news they were waiting for after the Texas Commission in Environmental Quality agreed that the water was safe to drink in their area.
It was welcome news to the staff at Mickey’s Convenience Store off Stagecoach Rd.
"It was amazing," said cashier Angel Shipler. "It’s about time because ... we couldn’t do this and we couldn’t do that.”
There is still much of Killeen under boiling water due to low chlorine levels but the city officials say that could be lifted very soon.
"We’ve got all of our test samples at the lab right now for the upper-pressure plane, the airport pressure plane. Those should be back tomorrow morning. If all is favorable in those, we will be releasing the rest of the city at that time,” said Jeffery Reynolds, director of public works for the City of Killeen.
The city said the samples they sent off should show exhibit safe chlorine levels but they still need to be reviewed by the TCEQ before the boil water notice can be lifted.
Like most people in Killeen, city officials are eager to get that go ahead.
"We’re all looking forward to getting beyond this and getting this behind us. We just again, want to thank the public for their patience during this process,” said Reynolds.
That patience is something the folks at Mickey’s said they witnessed firsthand.
"Yeah it took a while, but nobody was grumbling or being mean to us or anything like that. We did ask them but they were amazing,” said Shipler.
Though Mickey’s customers seemed understanding, the city-wide boil water notice was a major inconvenience to everyone and an experience the city and WCID say they are determined not to repeat.
"We’re going to continue to build and see what we can do better in the future. This whole process has brought a lot of things that we can do better, on both sides, to make sure that this never happens again,” said Reynolds.
Much of the city has already seen their boil water notices lifted and the hope is, by lunchtime Friday, the rest of the city will too.
