Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Monday defended issuing a notice urging over 2 million people in the area to boil their tap water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.
The notice was issued after a power outage at the East Water Purification Plant at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday prompted the city’s water pressure to fall below 20 pounds per square inch (psi), the minimum required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
As a result, multiple schools in the Houston area were shut down on Monday.
At a press conference, Turner said the city issued the notice out of an “abundance of caution” after two transformers at the plant —a main one and its backup—”uniquely and coincidentally” failed, impacting the plant’s ability to treat water and pump water into the transmission system….