“It’s over”: Grand Prairie lifts water restrictions 2 days after contamination

GRAND PRAIRIE — Tap water in Grand Prairie is safe, city leaders said late Thursday, ending a two-day ordeal in which a foam used for firefighting contaminated the water supply.
At a news conference Thursday night, city officials said boiling water will not be necessary as long as the city maintains adequate water pressure. To do so, officials asked residents to flush their home systems in phases from 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday.
To flush their water, residents should run hot water from all faucets for 15 minutes, followed by five minutes of cold water, Mayor Ron Jensen said at the conference at Grand Prairie City Hall. If water still appears cloudy, repeat the procedure. The city updated its website with additional instructions.
“It’s over,” Jensen said. “We got a clean bill of health.”
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The water contamination occurred Tuesday, affecting roughly 60,000 residents in Grand Prairie who live north of Interstate 20. Those residents were urged to avoid drinking the water, but also to avoid bathing, cooking, brushing teeth or washing dishes and clothes in tap water.
On Thursday, roughly 48 hours after the foaming agent seeped into the water, Grand Prairie residents struggled to cope with cases of bottled water, baby wipes and packaged food.
Steven Hernandez, 17, grabbed a stack of towels and soap Thursday morning and set out in his family’s minivan with his mother and three sisters. He was desperate for a hot shower.
“That felt really, really good,” Hernandez said while leaving the Tony Shotwell Life Center in Grand Prairie, which offered free showers this week. “I’m just worried about how long this is going to last.”
Hernandez, who attends Dubiski Career High School, said his family made multiple trips to the grocery store to fill gallon bottles of water so they could brush their teeth and wash their hands. For dinner, they picked up a pizza and were trying to avoid dirtying dishes.
“It’s been a pain,” he said. “We’ll feel better when this is all over.”
Marileysis Longoria, who lives with her husband and 1-year-old son, spent two days driving back and forth from her home in Grand Prairie to her aunt’s house in Arlington, where she showered, washed baby bottles and prepared meals.
That did not prevent what she considered a near-catastrophe: Longoria glanced at her son just as he dipped his hand into the toilet water, sending her and her husband into a panic.
“It makes us nervous. The baby gets into everything,” Longoria, 24, said. “We started scrubbing his hands with bottled water.”
Longoria was not the only one who reported a close call. Her sister, who also lives in Grand Prairie, said she absentmindedly brushed her teeth with tap water.
On a Grand Prairie Facebook page, residents traded recommendations for their favorite baby and bathing wipes. One resident said they covered bathroom and kitchen faucets with plastic cups as a reminder. Another said they tied surgical gloves to faucets.
The city has not received any reports of illnesses, nor had there been an increase in the number of emergency calls, Jensen said Thursday evening. Grand Prairie schools, which closed after the contamination was discovered, will remain closed Friday to give maintenance crews time to flush drinking fountain and sink lines and change filters, the school district announced.
City officials got the first reports of foamy tap water late Tuesday afternoon and worked with state environmental officials to identify the source: a foam used to extinguish a fire earlier in the day at an industrial warehouse.
Firefighters used the foam to help penetrate the blaze, complicated by hoarder-like conditions at the warehouse in the Great Southwest Industrial District. A backflow caused the contaminant to enter the water supply. Since then, crews have flushed the water supply with more than 2 million gallons of water.
The firefighting foam comes from the brand Micro-Blaze and touts itself as environmentally friendly. According to its website and city officials, it does not contain PFAS, a group of synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment.
By late Thursday, Grand Prairie had distributed more than 630,000 bottles of water at Lone Star Park, a horse racing track. Water distribution will continue until noon Thursday.
Crews flushed the water supply with more than 2 million gallons of water, city officials said, as they waited for clearance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which oversaw testing of the water.
Foaming agents can give water a bitter, oily taste, cloudy appearance and odor. High dosages can cause gastrointestinal issues if ingested. Some Grand Prairie residents said their water looked normal, but others said it appeared cloudy or foamy.
Reuben Nigo, 52, who lives in Grand Prairie, said he was not drinking the water but was showering and brushing his teeth normally.
“It can’t be any worse than what we grew up drinking,” Nigo said.
Others were not quite as relaxed. Diana Osborn said she relied on pre-packaged food since she was notified of the issue and drove to a grocery store outside the contaminated zone to avoid fruits or vegetables that may have been rinsed in tainted water. She said she spent more on food the past two days than in a typical week.
“This is creating a financial issue,” Osborn said.
On Thursday, Valerie Varga, 31, and her husband, Jacob, 30, drove to the Tony Shotwell Life Center with their three daughters, ages 4, 5 and 11, to take much-needed showers. The family used bottled water to cook Frito chili pie this week, but with no way to wash dishes, the kitchen sink overflowed with dirty bowls and plates.
Varga said she worried about how long the advisory would last and her family’s health. Shortly before learning about the contamination, her husband took a shower at his Grand Prairie home.
“I’m fine,” Jacob Varga said, shrugging. “So far.”