Via the Orlando Sentinel: Orlando urges reduced water usage as liquid oxygen used to purify water goes to COVID patients. Excerpt:
The city of Orlando and its water utility made an urgent appeal Friday afternoon for residents to cut back sharply on water usage for weeks because of a pandemic-triggered shortage of liquid oxygen used to purify water.
If commercial and residential customers are unable to reduce water usage quickly and sufficiently, Orlando Utilities Commission may issue a system-wide alert for boiling water needed for drinking and cooking. Without reductions in water usage, a boil-water alert would come within a week, utility officials said.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer asked residents to immediately stop watering their lawns, washing their cars and using pressure washers. Landscape irrigation consumes about 40% of the water provided by OUC.
“It’s a pretty simple thing that we are asking our residential customers,” Dyer said. “Let’s just not water your yard for a week. In all likelihood, there will be thunderstorms during the week anyway.”
Medical authorities have reported that along with a spike in hospitalizations for COVID cases, hospitals are relying increasingly on treatment involving high flows of supplemental oxygen for patients.
That has spurred a nationwide shortage for liquid oxygen, which has been exacerbated by a lack of available tanker trucks and drivers.
As the region’s largest water utility, OUC provides about 90 million gallons of potable water daily to 140,000 customers or an estimated 400,000 people within city limits and in Orange County.
OUC said the call for reduced water usage will be in place for at least two to three weeks. The city has already stopped irrigation at parks and ballfields.
