Winter Storm Cora rolled into North Texas in early January 2025, blanketing much of the region in snow. While many schools and businesses closed, the essential service professionals at the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) implemented inclement weather procedures and continued to work. Because of their diligence, there were no impacts to service during or immediately after the storm.
Preparing for the incoming storm was a major undertaking, as the District’s service area spans more than 2,200 square miles, and includes three major services - water, wastewater, and solid waste. District employees used winter event checklists to ensure people and facilities were ready before the sleet and snow arrived.
Some preparations, like providing cold-weather gear, staging cots and ready-to-eat meals at facilities, and making sure generators are fueled and functional were common across departments. Other actions, such as issuing head lamps and using heat trace to keep pipes flowing, were specific to duties and unique challenges at different job sites.
Water treatment plant operators ensured critical infrastructure was protected from the cold to provide uninterrupted water to the District’s Member Cities and Customers. However, seasoned operators know the weather can create problems even though all precautions and procedures have been followed.
“Sometimes with this type of weather, you can have water main breaks that can take place out in the system, causing you to have more water draws and more water usage at the same time,” said Albert Widermyre, Assistant Water System Manager – Treatment. “We have to ensure that we can provide even more water in those circumstances.”
Wastewater treatment operators also worked through the storm, which made an arduous, but important job even more challenging.
“Under normal conditions, wastewater treatment is a challenging operation,” said Morgan Dadgostar, Regional Wastewater System Manager. “During the harsh winter storms, when the last thing on most people’s mind is wastewater treatment, our dedicated wastewater operators responsible for keeping our water clean faced a unique set of complications. These challenges range from increased flow as a result of inflow and infiltration of snowmelt and precipitation, and customer’s faucet dripping to impact on critical treatment processes like biological treatment, processing and hauling sludge and disinfection. They also have to contend with frozen equipment and material, damage to outdoor equipment, and clogged pipes, while working outside in harsh weather conditions. Despite all these, our WWTP operators managed to continue effective operations of our wastewater facilities through proper planning, and most importantly by showing up and weathering the storm.”
The NTMWD landfill and transfer stations remained open during the winter storm. Fleet Services kept the trucks fueled and running after taking the necessary steps to ensure the cold temperatures did not cause diesel fuel to gel in the vehicles or bulk fuel tanks. As with any operation, careful preparation is the key to success.
“The preparation includes stocking up on diesel anti-gel, dosing bulk fuel tanks with anti-gel, prepping generators, compressors, and facility winterization,” said Jeff Bond, Fleet Manager. “We also provide a list of water shut-off locations to our staff for our facilities should we have a break in one of our lines. An updated on-call list of all fleet employees is created. We have staff at the ready should a customer require our services. The entire fleet staff reports to work to help manage any issues that come our way during inclement weather events. We send technicians on road calls to assist other departments that may have equipment issues.”
The difficult and sometimes dangerous work completed during the winter storm reflects the year-round commitment of all essential service District professionals who provide the vital services needed to support public health, safety and welfare - often during times most people would be at home with their families
“Every time someone turns the faucet on, or flushes the toilet, just remember, there's someone there committed to ensuring that goes well every day,” said Widermyre. “... they understand the importance of their work to the community. We have a really good group of people. We lead by example.”