Two new areas to have water suspended

Two new areas to have water suspended

Published 5:37 pm Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill announced late this afternoon that additional areas of the city will experience temporary water service suspensions as engineers work to stabilize the system and locate a significant leak.

The first affected area is south of NMRC and south of Veterans Drive. By closing two valves in this area, water service will be temporarily suspended for customers in Windsor Falls, South Oaks, Whippoorwill, South Grove, and along Pea Ridge Road.

Additionally, two valves along Oxford Way and South Lamar will be closed. This will result in temporary water suspension for all developments along Oxford Way and several developments along Old Taylor Road, including The Domain, The Reserve, Still Water, Azul, Taylor Bend, The Mill, The Archive, and surrounding communities.

Tannehill said that the VA Home and all assisted living facilities will not be affected by these temporary suspensions.

The mayor said she spent the entire day meeting with city engineers, Oxford Utilities Administration, and former engineers and water and sewer employees to help troubleshoot the issue. Despite some gradual improvement throughout the day, the system has not stabilized enough to reconnect customers who were previously suspended.

Crews have spent all day walking water lines and working in ditches searching for a leak. A broken hydrant behind the old mall was located and repaired, which helped slightly, but engineers believe there is still a larger leak somewhere in the system.

To rebuild water capacity and determine whether the leak is within these newly affected areas, engineers advised temporarily suspending additional customers overnight. Tannehill explained that continuing to delay these actions would only prolong outages for residents already without service.

She strongly urged all residents to turn off streaming faucets immediately. On a normal day, the city pumps approximately five million gallons of water. Today, the system has pumped 13 million gallons, and capacity is still not meeting demand.

Throughout the afternoon, city officials contacted apartment and condominium property managers, asking them to enter vacant units and turn off any running faucets. The mayor urged all property managers to do the same if residents are not home.

Water service in the newly suspended areas will remain off overnight while crews perform an early morning analysis. City officials are hopeful that sectionalizing these areas will allow them to locate the broken main and give the system time to recover.