Lufkin Asks Residents to Conserve Water, Avoid Washing Cars
The City of Lufkin continues to make progress in getting the water supply to residents back to normal levels. As of noon today, 8 of the city's 9 wells were operational. Two of those wells were on back up power. Lufkin's water supply is making positive strides, but it will still take the help of citizens to get back to normal.
First, residents and especially business owners are asked to routinely check for water leaks or pipe breaks. Numerous reports have come in to the city's call center at 633-0357. A number of businesses have been closed during the aftermath of this winter storm and some business owners and keyholders may not be aware of major water breaks.
Also, residents and businesses are asked to help conserve water. The City of Lufkin is getting numerous reports of people at commercial car washes around town washing their vehicles. Those are high-pressure systems that use a lot of water. Citizens are asked to wait to do high-use, water-related activities until pressure has returned throughout the system. And if you own one of these commercial car washes, please consider shutting off your water to prevent waste at a time when conservation is critical to restore water pressure to everyone.
In response to this post, a local owner of several car washes indicated that he had already made the decision to close his car wash locations down until Tuesday. He also provided the following information: "The high pressure carwash systems use less than half the gallons per minute than your kitchen sink. The nozzles at the tip of the sprayer limit the gpm. It is actually recommended that people wash there car at commercial carwashes during times of drought to prevent people from washing in their driveway where more than double the amount of water is usually wasted."
Please remember that a boil water notice remains in effect.