A power outage at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility led to a temporary drop in water pressure or loss of service to customers in the Tampa service area, the Mayor's office announced earlier today. Power has now been restored, but a directive from the city recommends that customers either boil tap water before using it or use bottled water for the next 48 hours.
Here's the text of a release that was sent out by the Mayor's office late Friday afternoon:
At 1:30 p.m. today the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility lost power, resulting in customers throughout the service area experiencing either a drop in water pressure or a loss of service.
As of 2:30 p.m., full water service was restored for all customers throughout the service area. The City of Tampa water service area does extend beyond the boundaries of the city limits. To view the water service area, please visit this map: http://bit.ly/YrFVhB (The map goes down to street level, so please zoom in)
As of 4 p.m., TECO and City of Tampa crews have restored the Tippin Facility to full power. We are no longer running on generators.
Customers should not confuse having full water pressure as not needing to boil water. The precautionary boil water notice will remain in effect for all customers within the City of Tampa water service area for the next 48 hours. Customers needing more information about what a boil water notice means for them should read this fact sheet: http://bit.ly/XQU5so
Updates will be posted as they become available at http://www.tampagov.net/water
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2013.