Hurricane Irma Strict Water & Sewer Conservation Plan Update 2 – Thursday, September 14, 2017

Due to the significant power losses sustained in the area from Hurricane Irma, all customers of the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission continue to be under a strict water & sewer service conservation plan. Georgia Power has been diligently working to restore electricity to residences, businesses and critical infrastructure yet our wastewater collection system is still without power at 45% of our pumping stations as of 12:00 PM today. Local and state partners have provided much-needed resources, such as generators and fuel, and we will continue to work hard to restore sewer services system-wide.

At this time, no district in our system is under a boil water advisory. The water is safe to drink according to established standards.

The following measures must be followed by all citizens to preserve the integrity of our systems, promote public health, and ensure protection of the environment.

• No showers or baths should be taken.
• Toilets should not be flushed if at all possible.
• Sink use should be extremely limited.
• Do not run dish washer or washing machines.

At this time, the following recommendations are being added to the previous conservation plan posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2017.

• Please stay off the road if you can. The safety of our crews is becoming a challenge.
• Any restaurant that you see open has been approved by the Department of Public Health only after we have confirming sewer service is available.
• There are many, many reports of sanitary sewer overflows, especially at manholes. Stop using water if you can until all services have been restored.
• Please avoid automatic car washes: they’re adding to the problem.
• Staff has begun communicating with high volume water users, such as commercial laundry, coin op laundry and dry cleaners, to determine if they are in sewer basins that are sensitive to overflow.

You can view the report below (previous reports had only been used in the Emergency Operations Center) and also click on the outage dashboard on the banner of our website. Please don’t accept any word you get second hand or through social media as definitive. This problem is not over yet and the systems will only become more fragile as masses of citizens arrive back home.

This water conservation policy shall apply for the next 48 hours, from noon on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 until noon on Friday, September 15, 2017, or until further notice has been posted on the BGJWSC website.

The staff and management of the BGJWSC understand the hardship this places upon you and your family but we must all work together to make sure that the entire community can be restored to normalcy as quickly as possible.