LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Central Arkansas Water (CAW) customer said on a Wednesday in November a mandatory water boil notice was issued in his neighborhood.
The problem for him was that it wasn’t until Friday when he found out about it.
He wanted to know why he wasn’t directly notified and what can change in the future so this doesn’t happen.
“We really do our best to get the word out as quickly as we can... A boil water notice is never convenient for anyone," said CAW's Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Douglas Shackelford.
Shackelford explained precautionary water boil notices are required by the Arkansas Department of Health based on time, pressure loss and the number of meters that are affected.
Anything more than 150 meters affected automatically triggers a notice.
“In those cases, it can be anytime… it can be in the middle of the night," Shackelford said. "So, what we try to do is use every available means that we can to get that information out. We use social media, we use our website, we send media advisories.”
After the precautionary boil water notice is put out, and the repair is completed, Central Arkansas Water crews take samples which generally takes about 24 hours for the sample to come back.
As soon as the sample comes back clean, the notice is lifted and communication of the notice is updated.
Because CAW does notify about water boil advisories through social media, one thing customers can do is "like" and "follow" their Facebook page so that their updates are more likely to show on their newsfeed.
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