*****CITY OF STAMFORD UTILITY ALERT 11/28/2023 12:15 PM*****

Dear citizens, I don't like making these posts, but I especially don't like people being left in the dark. As you are aware, we are dealing with limited water pressure all over town. Here's the situation:

1. Last Friday afternoon (Black Friday), we received word of a major leak on the raw water line from Lake Stamford to town. City crews and contractors spent all Saturday repairing that line. They went back for more repairs yesterday and today.

2. We shut down that line for repairs and switched over to our backup water supply at College Lake. The "biological material" (mud, organic matter, etc.) in College Lake has caused a filtering problem at our water treatment plant. Yes, the same brand-new "state of the art" water treatment plant. This slowdown escalated yesterday.

3. City of Stamford public works spent yesterday and this morning cleaning on the filters with every chemical agent on hand and legally authorized. More and different chemicals just arrived from Abilene.

4. We had full pressure this morning but the morning and pre-lunch water usage have dropped the pressure and we are currently unable to filter enough water to restore pressure.

5. I am about to meet with everyone (as soon as I pick up my children from early release at school and daycare). I will find out new updates and discuss the plan forward.

6. To be clear: this is a different type of problem arising out of the same issue, that our new filtration system is "too good" at filtering our water and it is choking up the filter.

7. To put it bluntly: this is absolutely unacceptable. I will apologize to you now for the inconvenience with school children, personal needs, businesses, and otherwise. But also: I will not keep dealing with this in the future.

Something must change. We have spent millions of dollars on equipment that cannot reliably handle our city's water needs. That is absolutely not okay. I'll keep you updated, good or bad. Please share and notify others (especially folks not on Facebook), as it is a very helpful way to spread the word.

Thank you all. James M. Decker Mayor of Stamford, Texas]