Officials from Texarkana, Texas, and Bowie County have confirmed a ransomware attack is behind some widespread IT issues for the city’s water utility, Texarkana Water Utilities.

Water service won’t be interrupted as a result of the cyberattack, but the process of repairing the network is ongoing and an investigation is underway to determine how long the malware was on the network and the scope to which it has been affected.

GLWA Board Adopts 40-Year Wastewater Master Plan

The Great Lakes Water Authority Board of Directors recently adopted a 40-year Wastewater Master Plan to manage the region’s wastewater system, which includes 2.8 million customers and 15,000 miles of pipe in southeast Michigan.

One hundred stakeholders — authority partners, advocacy groups, regulatory agencies and others — collaborated on the master plan, according to DBusiness.

“The Wastewater Master Plan is a true demonstration of the spirit of regional collaboration on which GLWA was established,” Sue McCormick, CEO of the authority, tells DBusiness. “Pipes don’t know where one community ends, and another begins. This new plan is specifically designed to optimize the wastewater system based on need at the lowest cost for the region, as opposed to an individual system approach.”

Water Main Break Causes Evacuation in New Jersey

Power has been restored to downtown Westfield, New Jersey, after a number of buildings on East Broad Street were forced to evacuate due to a 12-inch water main break.

The main break affected about 20 commercial and 30 residential customers, according to Tap Into Westfield.

Power had been shut off in the downtown area as a safety precaution while authorities investigated whether there were any structural stability issues as a result of flooding.