Grand Saline public works department hopes a new water pump will solve old problems

GRAND SALINE, Texas (KLTV) - Water woes for folks in Grand Saline should be fixed soon, according to the city’s public works department.

The Grand Saline public works department faced what they’re calling the perfect storm of water issues this past week. First, they lost a water pump at one of their wells.

“Shortly after we realized the pump burned up and everyone had gone home, we had a house fire here in town,” said John David Savage, the director for the public works department. “And that consumed quite a bit of our water.”

After the house fire was put out another issue arose.

“We developed a leak in our 12-inch main,” said Savage. “That basically took all of our reserve; that wiped us out and put the people of Grand Saline without water.

Savage said he isn’t quite sure why, but believes a boil water notice led people to use more water.

“Our average [use] falls around between 312-340,000 gallons a day,” said Savage. “We have the capability, without this motor, to produce about 680,000. But with the shortage of water and people drawing up water and one thing or another, they were well over 700,000 which we just couldn’t keep up with.”

Savage said he hope they’re now caught up, but they’re asking for the public’s help.

“The citizens of Grand Saline, that are on our water supply system, understand that we can only produce so much,” said Savage. “We will be back up to volume with this new pump but we’re asking them to help us conserve until we get all our reserves filled back up."

Savage said he hopes everything will be back to normal by Monday morning.

According to Savage, the pipe with a leak was not compromised, but out of an abundance of caution and because of state requirements, they’re asking residents to continue to boil water.

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