Midland officials debrief water outage; point to valve failure, treatment‑plant reductions and zebra mussels

City staff briefed the Midland City Council on March 18 on a late‑February/early‑March water event that reduced treated water capacity and led to low pressure in parts of west Midland.

Tommy (staff member) said the outage was caused by a “perfect storm” of operational problems: two of the treatment plant’s four trains were offline for repairs, a city‑limit valve on FM 158 was not functioning correctly, and the regional supplier was managing zebra‑mussel treatment and maintenance that limited reservoir and supply availability. “We fell short that day,” Tommy said, taking responsibility for operational and communication failings.

Why it matters: Midland relies on a mix of Colorado River Municipal Water District (CRMWD) surface supplies and two local groundwater sources. The city’s North Midland Water Treatment Facility can treat up to 32 million gallons a day (MGD) across four “trains” (about 8 MGD each); two trains being down cut available treated capacity substantially and, combined with the valve problem at a critical transmission point, produced low pressures concentrated on the west side of the city.

Tommy and water staff described the sequence of failures: contractors had taken two trains…