Lubbock Chief Operating Officer Marsha Reed Discusses Lessons Learned From Lubbock Blackouts [AUDIO]

On Tuesday's edition of Lubbock's First News, Marsha Reed, chief operating officer for the City of Lubbock, talked with Chad Hasty and Rex Andrew about last weekend's city-wide blackout and boil water notice.

Reed said that the problem with the water system arose when one of the portable generators at one of the city's pump stations malfunctioned due to the blackout. Not every pump station in Lubbock has a generator, but Reed said they are moving in the direction of having generators at all pump station. Reed explained that, although the water itself was fine on Saturday, the boil water notice had to be implemented as a precaution.

There's always that possibility [of a boil water notice] even if we black out or not. If we have a major problem with the water line and the system goes to zero, or below that 20 pounds per square inch...we have to issue a boil water notice, whether it be city-wide, one area of town, or wherever the situation is occuring.

Reed also talked about the maintenance of the water system. She said that, although the generators will be repaired today, the city has fallen behind on maintenance as a whole. Reed believes that, due to the emphasis on bringing new water sources to Lubbock, there have not been enough resources left over to catch up on maintenance for such things as valves and pipe replacement.