Mark your calendar for 2026: If McComb is going to have problems with its water system, it seems likely to occur around the Martin Luther King holiday.
This has happened in both 2024 and 2025. Both times, exceptionally cold weather caused the problems.
This year, a sensor in the city water plant reported a drop in pressure this past Tuesday night, but the fix didn’t occur for several hours. There was virtually no water in the city for a few hours on Wednesday morning.
In 2024, and I had forgotten about this, the city was under a boil-water notice for several days when a suspected large water main break caused a drop in water pressure.
It turned out to be a bunch of smaller ruptures. All told, 4 million gallons leaked out of water lines during the freeze, which lasted for three days. To make it worse, the computer system that manages the water supply froze up during the cold weather.
Two such occurrences around a holiday are more of a coincidence than anything else. There’s nothing we can do about that. But there are some other things that the city can do, and they were laid out a year ago in a memo to the city board by Selectman Tommy McKenzie.
He said that last week, the public works computer systems showed that all of McComb’s overhead water tanks were full until 11:13 p.m. Tuesday, when an alarm signalled a problem.
The system is designed to send text message notifications of water supply problems, but McKenzie said only one employee in the city is set up to receive the message.
The fix did not occur until Wednesday morning, when residents called to complain that they had no water. It took several hours for the tanks to refill.
End of the world? No. When Mary Ann told me at 8 that morning that we had no water, I grumbled silently that I would not be able to take a shower. But within a couple of hours, service returned and I got my shower about 10 a.m.
If there is a lesson from this week’s water loss, it’s that the lesson has already been learned, but I don’t know how much has been done about it.
McKenzie, an engineer, had a number of suggestions about water problems after the January 2024 shutdown. Here are the highlights of his memo about it:
• “If nothing changes, the same water crisis will happen again.” Guess he got that right. He also mentioned another water system problem that occurred in June 2023.
• Hire a company to review the water system and give a written report to the city board about upgrades and proper maintenance.
• More than one person needs to receive a message when there’s a problem with the water supply. McKenzie suggested the text be sent to the city administrator, fire chief, public works director and other public works employees. This makes sense. This year’s problem could have been fixed while people slept. It was not nearly as big as what the city dealt with in January 2024.
• Written procedures and responsibilities need to be in place when freezing weather is expected. The city also needs to verify which employees are certified to operate the water plant, and make sure their training stays up to date.
• Water plant equipment needs to be upgraded, including pumps, pipes, controls and electrical panels. The pump room building also needs attention; McKenzie asked if it is even heated and cooled.
He brought up these issues at the city board’s work session Friday, and it is supposed to be on the agenda for this week’s meeting. I hope the board gets going on making some improvements, in both water equipment and the operation of the water system.
It’s easy to throw sand at the city or any public entity when something like this happens. But just from running the newspaper, I can think of several improvements that need to be made in our equipment or operations. I’ll bet anyone else who owns or manages something could say the same thing about their place.
I do not envy the people who manage public services like a water supply. Equipment breaks; things go wrong. There isn’t much room for error.
McKenzie’s 2024 memo said the city had some money to upgrade the water system. I hope that’s still true today.
The key is to set up the system so that problems occur less frequently. I guess McComb residents will know next January if things have improved.
