Mayor Turner says city report evaluating water plant points out upgrades are needed

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner made it clear on Monday that the decision to issue a boil water notice last week was not his, and if it were up to him, there would have never been one.

The city of Houston went under a boil water order on Sunday, Nov. 27. It wasn't lifted until two days later.
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The order was triggered when the water pressure dropped after two city transformers failed at the East Water Purification Plant.

City officials were criticized for not issuing the alert for hours after leaders became aware of the situation.

Then on Monday, Turner said that based on the information he had at the time, he wouldn't have issued a notice at all.
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"There was no infiltration into our system, where the pressure was quickly restored. I do not believe that a boil water notice should have been placed on the city of Houston, based on the facts presented in this particular instance," Turner said.

Turner also addressed a city report that evaluated the East Water Purification Plant last year. The report points out some upgrades are needed, but Turner said the report didn't predict last week's issue would happen.



ABC13 reached out to the city for a copy of the report, but we have not yet heard back.