Austin Water practices emergency responses after audit recommendation

KVUE
Author: Melia Masumoto
Published: 5:43 PM CDT June 21, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas — Leaders at Austin Water are working to improve how the agency handles emergencies.

The utility company has been under fire the past few years for issuing three city-wide boil water notices since 2018. Last year, after human error led to a delayed response to a water quality issue at the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant, customers were left without drinking water for days.

To find out what went wrong, the City Council approved an external audit of Austin Water.

"This external review is to not only to make sure we can deliver the safe drinking water but to rebuild trust in Austin Water,” said Councilwoman Alison Alter.

One of the recommended ways to rebuild that trust and improve communication was to hold more emergency training drills. On Wednesday, Austin Water took that advice.

Austin Water teamed up with Austin Fire, Travis County ESD #9 and Travis County STAR Flight to practice their responses to emergency scenarios.

"It allows our teams the opportunity to test their skills, work together, test our communication protocols and really learn,” said Shay Ralls Roalson, the Director of Austin Water.

Wednesday's emergency scenario was a mock wildfire at the source of Austin’s Water. The Austin Fire Department and Westlake Fire Department worked together with their drone to respond to the emergency.

"It really helps out a lot for us all to work together on something like this,” said Matt Mcelearney of the Austin Fire Department

Austin Water leaders say working together gives them a chance to see which areas they are strong in and where they need improvement.

"It's really important that as we drill that experience, that we actually work together with those teams so that we can work out our communication protocols and make sure that in a real emergency, we would be able to work together,” Ralls Roalson said.

The company will complete a full review of the drill in the coming days or weeks and will change protocols accordingly. Austin Water also said they plan to do more of these drills to continue strengthening their emergency preparation system.