Austin Water, which has issued three boil-water notices in four years, gets a new leader

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City Manager Spencer Cronk has chosen Shay Ralls Roalson to be the next director of Austin Water. Roalson, the first woman to hold the role, will replace the former leader of the city-owned water utility who resigned in February after an error at a treatment facility forced Austin residents to boil their water for three days.

Roalson has worked at Austin Water since April 2020 as the assistant director of engineering services. Her team works on projects that improve the water system’s operations and performance. They also play a key role in executing the utility’s $1.4 billion five-year capital improvement plan.

Roalson used to work for the design firm HDR Engineering, Inc. While there, she consulted with utilities in Texas, including Austin Water and San Antonio Water System.

When Roalson starts her new role on Jan. 1, she will be Austin Water’s first permanent director in about 11 months. Robert Goode has been the utility’s interim director since April. He replaced Greg Meszaros, who served as director for 15 years and announced in February he would resign.

The resignation came days after the city faced its third boil-water notice in four years. The utility’s 1 million residential customers had to boil their water for three days straight.

In a Feb. 11 memo to the Austin mayor and City Council, Meszaros said the incident weighed heavily on him.

“Residents are angry, frustrated and have lost trust in us,” he wrote. “I share your frustration and am deeply disappointed that this event occurred.”

The boil-water notice was prompted by a mistake Austin Water staff made at the city’s oldest water treatment plant. The employees added too much of a mixture containing calcium carbonate to a basin used to treat river water, which made the water cloudy.

Meszaros told City Council at the time that, even though there are alarms and protocols in place to address the cloudiness, or turbidity, they were not followed. He did note the event occurred after 20 employees left the utility in January.

An internal investigation completed in late March confirmed that employee error was the primary reason the boil-water notice needed to be issued.

In Tuesday’s news release from the city, Roalson said she looks forward to empowering employees and “continuing to build trust in the community in order to provide exceptional water utility services to the residents of Austin.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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