Gatesville residents urged to boil water after contractor breaks main line

A fiber-optic contractor’s boring work near Ace Hardware on State Highway 36 struck Gatesville’s main water supply line around 12:30 p.m. Monday, setting off a boil water notice that reached customers across the city and surrounding areas.

By Tuesday, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had required the city to issue the formal advisory after the break created conditions that could let harmful bacteria enter the system. Residents were told to bring water to a rolling boil for two minutes before using it for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing hands or any other consumption. Bottled water was recommended until the city clears the system and rescinds the notice. City officials also urged conservation while repairs were underway.

City Manager Brad Hunt said the contractor did not call the city for a utility locate before beginning the boring work, a required step under local protocols. He said the company was operating outside those procedures and that the city would take appropriate steps to hold it accountable and prevent a repeat.

The state’s rules require public water systems to notify the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality immediately when an unplanned outage or other unplanned condition leads to a boil water notice, and to deliver the notice to customers as soon as possible, but no later than 24 hours after the incident. Once the system is safe again, the city must issue a rescission notice and provide sample results before the advisory can be lifted.

KCEN-TV reported that the damaged line supplies all of Gatesville and surrounding areas with drinking water, making the break a systemwide issue rather than a neighborhood problem. Mountain Water Supply Corp. said its customers were not affected because it switched to its own wells after learning of the break and would keep operating on well water until the city lifts the notice.

The outage landed in a city already under strain. Less than a month earlier, a downtown Gatesville fire destroyed a block of historic buildings, injured three firefighters and prompted a Coryell County disaster declaration. With that history still fresh, the water break underscored how quickly one contractor’s mistake can ripple through daily life in Gatesville, from kitchen taps to public confidence in the city’s infrastructure.