CHESTER – A local disaster declaration was made by Robert Poynter, mayor of Chester, over the failure of the water system, which he said has left dozens of families without access to clean drinking water, sanitation or basic hygiene.
Poynter issued the declaration on Friday, Sept. 19, and said “our community is facing a crisis. Families are boiling rainwater, relying on bottled water donations and struggling to maintain basic sanitation. We are calling on state and federal partners to help us restore safe water access immediately.”
On Thursday, the county’s Emergency Management Office put out a statement about an outage, in the Barnum area, on the Deer Country Plant, that the issue was being resolved, but asked that residents curtail water usage to only essential purposes.
On Friday, before Poynter’s declaration was issued, the Chester Water Supply Corp. issued a boil water notice, stating that contaminated water may have entered its distribution system, due to the outage in Barnum.
The Emergency Management Office command center, located at 201 Veterans Way in Woodville, is offering bottled water to customers of Chester Water Supply today and Sunday, from 9 a.m. until noon. To pick up, residents need to bring a photo ID, and pick up will take place at the gated area of the center.
Poynter’s local declaration activates emergency protocols and opens the door for assistance from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and other agencies. Poynter said the town is urgently seeking emergency water distribution; technical support to assess and repair the water system and disaster recovery funding and infrastructure aid.
Residents are asked to report water-related issues to Ray McKnight at 936-969-2360 or Poynter at 281-661-0035.
Poynter advised that any pertinent updates will be shared on the city of Chester’s official website; at Chester City Hall, or on the following Facebook pages: Chester Chat, and the Chester Texas Community Forum.
