On January 19 the City of Toledo, Oregon issued a 48 water conservation notice to the public.   After three days of heavy rains and flooding, the city water treatment facility had become inundated with mud and debris from the storm drainage system.  Fire Chief Will Ewing explained that the water supply had become so muddy that it could no longer be treated.

Public Health departments across the country are faced with the challenge of providing safe drinking water to the communities they serve during periods of interruption. Often this is as simple as issuing boil water advisories following a water main break but this past year, several South Alabama communities were faced with complete water outages requiring a more advanced solution.