'A serious situation': City of Montgomery down to 1 water source following well outage

MONTGOMERY, Texas (KTRK) -- The City of Montgomery is asking residents to conserve water after one of the city's wells broke last week.

There has yet to be a timeline for when it will be operational again.

The incident is the second consecutive year the city has had to deal with such an issue, according to the city's website.

A well that broke in August 2023 must be rebuilt, so it is also unusable.

That means there is only one functioning well that provides water to the citizens of Montgomery.

What happens if it goes down?

City Administrator Gary Palmer said they are currently working with the county on a contingency plan, but no such thing exists at this point.

"There would be no way to provide water throughout the entire city," said the city's post on what would happen if this well malfunctioned. "This is a serious situation we are in right now."

Palmer said they're confident this well will perform without any issues but did give some insight on what might cause that to change.

"If we have another storm come through," he explained. "That's what we're worried about."

Palmer said Montgomery has four wells, but only three of them have been used in recent years.

"Water Well 4" is the name of the one currently providing water to citizens.

Kambra Drummond, who owns an antique shop in Montgomery, said she's not concerned.

"It honestly wasn't of any major concern to me," Drummond said. "It doesn't have any bearing on my day-to-day business as long as I can flush the toilet or turn the sink on."

Jordan Selleck wasn't aware of the issue until Eyewitness News asked him about it outside of his Montgomery home Tuesday afternoon.

"That's a little bit of stress I didn't know I needed," Selleck said.

Selleck and Drummond said they believe the City of Montgomery will resolve this without interruptions to service.

In the meantime, residents are asked to conserve water and only use it for essential purposes.

They're also being told they can only water their lawns between 8 p.m. and 10 a.m.

The city added that water could be a different color or temperature due to this situation but said that it is safe to use.

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