Sherman water treatment plant back online
SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - Sherman’s water treatment plant is back online Thursday, according to the city.
The City of Sherman said in a Facebook post the plant began pumping approximately 125,000 gallons per hour around 1 a.m. Thursday.
Sherman will remain under a boil order until further notice, but getting the plant back up and running “should provide pressure for those who have been without water.”
“During this build-up period, water pressures at various locations will continue to be spotty, but will be improving,” the post concluded.
Sherman’s plant was included in the rolling blackouts that left millions of Texans in the dark and cold earlier this week as a winter storm and record low temperatures wreaked havoc on infrastructure across the state.
News 12 is working on more information and will have complete coverage in tonight’s newscasts.
Original story (posted Wed, Feb. 17, 2021)
SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - The City of Sherman is now calling the water outages “critical” and “life-threatening.”
On Wednesday, they asked all industries to shut down, and they’re going to limit water supply to residential areas, nursing homes and hospitals.
City manager Robby Hefton said the city’s water treatment plant was shut down without power and frozen, leaving mainly the north and west parts of the city with little to no water.
Hefton says Tyson Foods is already closed and that the city emailed SEDCO on Wednesday to close industries.
He says that includes people’s homes, hospitals and nursing homes. He says grocery stores can also remain open.
The whole city is under a boil order, so Hefton says restaurants shouldn’t be open unless they’re boiling the water.
Hefton says the problem is the city is using more than they can produce, causing widespread outages and low pressure.
Frozen pipes have also caused water main breaks across town.
ONCOR Area Manager Todd Thompson confirmed the Sherman water treatment plant was included on ERCOT’s list for rolling blackouts.
Thompson said Sherman should have been able to switch to a backup source of power to avoid having to shutdown.
A city spokesperson is looking into why that didn’t happen.
In the meantime, they have switched to ground water, but residents have to boil it and the supply is limited.
Hefton says they hope to be able to use surface water again within the next 24 hours.
They’re asking anyone with water in Sherman to conserve.
“It’s been, it’s been challenging,” Buckner said.
Lauren Buckner lives in Knollwood and her water was shut off on Monday.
She has three kids at home, eight years old, five years old and 11 months old.
“How are we going to bathe our kids? Make bottles for our baby, flush toilets even. It’s been interesting trying to figure out where we’re going to get water from,” Buckner said.
“We actually came out here the other day with the dog food bowls and scooped it into the water bowl. And in the house, the heaters are on, so it melts pretty quick,” said Serenity Alexander, who is without water in Knollwood.
Buckner got water jugs filled from family in Denison.
“But that’s pretty much already gone. So it’s going quick,” Buckner said.
They’ve been melting snow to flush toilets and wash dishes.
“Gave the kids a rag bath last night. It was interesting,” Buckner said.
The city says for them to be able to get water to the North and West parts of town, everyone has to use less water.
They say crews are working to fix the problems. But right now, there’s no timeline for when this will be fixed.
The City of Sherman is partnering with 903 Brewers to provide canned water.
On Monday evening, they had 100 cases of 24 cans available at the Sherman Municipal Building that anyone can pick up.
The city said 903 will have more on the way when that runs out.
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