City Of Tulsa Says Water Situation Is Improving; Urges Continued Conservation

Crews continue to work to fix water line breaks and the city said the situation is improving. However, officials ask people to conserve water when they can.

Tulsa's water situation continues to improve with fewer than 50 active water lines breaks, and higher levels in storage tanks that supply fresh water to homes. The main tanks, on Shadow Mountain, were almost full Wednesday, after the City reported they were practically empty last week.

Several thousand homes lost water service, but as of Wednesday, fewer than 150 homes remained without water and all were because valves were closed around water line breaks.

The City hopes to continue building reserves through the weekend, and reported that demand was down, likely because so many leaks have been repaired both on public and private property.

"Even though we have seen a reduction in demand, we are still about 35 million gallons over what we would normally pump in February," said Clayton Edwards, who heads the Water and Sewer Department for the City. "So, we are still losing water in the system, we are still trying to isolate and determine where we're losing water, so we're still asking our customers to conserve water."

The City has established a system to provide relief for water customers who experienced major water losses, through extended payments and possible account credits.

A voluntary boil order remains in effect, but the City has not found any water quality issues, according to Edwards, who said the City was working through 4,600 reports of water leaks in the last two weeks.

Leaks can be reported by email at waterbreaks@cityoftulsa.org.

Utility customers seeking relief from their bills can get more information here and you can find a live map of breaks here.