Texas city faces second boil water notice in a year, residents ridicule ‘third-world’ conditions
Austin, Texas prides itself on being a high-tech hub, the center of the Texas “Silicon Prairie.” It’s home to Google and Facebook, which just signed the city’s largest-ever lease, and will soon be home to Apple’s mammoth campus on the city’s northern edge. Austin was where Twitter was first introduced at SXSW, which is one of the world’s leading technology and cultural showpieces every year. Even nearby cities reap from Austin’s tech reputation: Samsung is building a massive plant in Taylor, up the road about 40 miles from downtown Austin.
But infrastructure and essentials like potable water are key to supporting business, and the Texas capital is having trouble keeping its drinking water clean, again.
Austin issued a water boil notice Saturday night that will last “a couple days” after officials failed to address the issue following a failure a year ago at the same treatment plant.