The Advocate: Coronavirus/COVID-19 Information for Public Water Systems

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) would like to provide you with important information regarding your public water system and preparing for and responding to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. A centralized website has been organized at https://www.tceq.texas.gov/response/covid-19 to make resources and guidance more readily available to you. A drinking water related webpage has also been created to provide specific steps that you can take to minimize impacts to your system due to the COVID-19 outbreak and can be found at https://www.tceq.texas.gov/response/covid-19/covid-19-public-water-system-disinfection. The website contains up-to-date information concerning drinking water compliance, technical assistance, public water system guidance, and other available resources related to drinking water.

State and federal regulations have established treatment requirements for public water systems that prevent waterborne pathogens such as viruses from contaminating drinking water. COVID-19 is a type of virus that is particularly susceptible to disinfection and standard treatment and disinfection processes are expected to be effective. The TCEQ is emphasizing the importance of maintaining adequate disinfectant treatment at your public water system in accordance with TCEQ’s rules (minimum 0.2 mg/L free chlorine or 0.5 mg/L chloramine measured as total chlorine) to ensure continued health protection of drinking water.

The TCEQ is committed to assisting you if your public water system is impacted by COVID-19. If you have questions or need immediate assistance, please contact the TCEQ regional office that serves your county or call the TCEQ’s emergency hotline at 1-888-777-3186. Contact information for TCEQ regional offices can be located athttps://www.tceq.texas.gov/agency/directory/region/reglist.html. For technical assistance with treatment or repair, please contact us by email at [email protected]. For assistance with chemical compliance sampling please contact the Drinking Water Quality Team at[email protected]. For assistance with bacteriological monitoring or well disinfection, please contact the Drinking Water Assessment Team at [email protected].

If you need emergency equipment or supplies, please contact your local emergency manager (e.g. judge, mayor, or appointed emergency coordinator).

Your county or local emergency-management coordinator may be able to obtain assistance for your water or wastewater system. Contact your local government officials (city mayor, county judge, or emergency management coordinator). Often, the county judge may also serve as the emergency-management coordinator for the area. If not, that office can tell you who to contact. A list of county judges is available athttps://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/judges.shtml.
Information on state emergency management, including the state District Coordinator is through the Texas Division of Emergency Management and can be found at:https://tdem.texas.gov/field-response/.

Additional assistance is also available through:

TXWARN: 866-989-9276 or [email protected]

The mission of the Texas Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network (TXWARN) is to support and promote statewide disaster response and mutual aid assistance for public and private water and wastewater utilities. This is a free service.

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