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With Water Problems Under Control, City Of Tulsa Drops Voluntary Boil Order, Conservation Request

City of Tulsa

City of Tulsa officials said Friday afternoon a voluntary boil order is no longer necessary, and they’re no longer asking people to conserve water.

Crews now have a handle on water line breaks after dealing with more than 400 caused by winter storms. At one point, more than 1,700 homes and businesses were without water.

The city is still using about one-third more water than typical for this time of year. Mayor G.T. Bynum encouraged people to keep checking for broken pipes at their homes.

"I’ve been in these press conferences telling everyone to conserve water, and it wasn’t until my basement started to fill up that I realized we had a broken sprinkler line at our house," Bynum said.

The city has responded to around 1,000 private line breaks.

Bynum said city crews deserve everyone’s thanks for their efforts to keep water flowing as much as they did.

"You have to think about the nature of this work. It’s wet, it’s muddy, and yet these crews were out in -20 windchill in the middle of the night," Bynum said.

City Water and Sewer Director Clayton Edwards said his department will be reviewing their response, what happened with a failed water plant pump and the water system asset management plan.

"That plan identified that cast iron mains are most at risk of failing, and that’s what we essentially found during this storm. Most of our breaks were on cast iron lines," Edwards said. "We’ll be looking at the likelihood of failure, the consequence of failure and also be reviewing the assumptions that we use to evaluate the risks to our water lines."

Water stations closed at the end of the business day on Friday. People without water can call 211 for help.

City crews' focus is turning to street repairs. Tulsans are asked to report potholes through the 311 hotline, Tulsa311.com website or smartphone app.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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