Greg Meszaros wrote in a letter dated Friday sent to Newsweek that he takes full responsibility “for any shortcomings at the Utility this past week.” Three Austin Water employees have been placed on leave, a city memo said.

The notice was issued Saturday after the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant shut down briefly because of “internal treatment process issues,” which officials later said were due to employee error, according to KXAN. The notice was lifted late Tuesday night. It was Austin’s third boil water notice ever, all of them occurring in the past four years.

Austin Water reportedly was informed of the issue regarding the water 12 hours before it told customers, KVUE reported.

Meszaros said he is “ready to step aside” in his resignation letter.

City Manager Spencer Cronk issued a separate memo on the resignation attached to the letter sent to Newsweek, saying Meszaros decided to “focus on family and new horizons.” Cronk said he will work with Meszaros during the transition, which includes selecting an interim director and a primary point of contact.

“The City owes Director Meszaros a debt of gratitude for his capable and strong service to our community,” Cronk wrote.

The city’s memo regarding the three Austin Water employees said they will be on leave pending an investigation into how the incident happened and who was responsible. Meszaros wrote in the memo that he hopes the City Council and the community “will not think less of any Austin Water employees due to a small group of individuals who did not perform to our expectations.”

The memo also said there was no evidence of contaminants in the water. The boil water notice was necessary due to turbidity levels at Ullrich Water Treatment Plants exceeding regulations. The notice was a precaution, the memo added, as the risk of contaminants is higher when there are high levels of turbidity, or suspended particles, in the water.

The latest boil water notice resulted in Austin City Council members and Mayor Pro-Tem Alison Alter to call for an external audit of the utility, KXAN reported.

“This is a pattern that is problematic, and one that we need to be looking at, you know, in a different way,” Alter said about boil water notices and other water quality concerns while also referring to problems with zebra mussels, according to KXAN.

The past two water notices were caused by mostly by “catastrophic weather events,” the city memo said. One happened in October of 2018 when the Colorado River was filled with silt, dirt, debris from rainfall that overwhelmed Austin Water’s treatment plant systems. The other occurred in February of 2021 when Winter Storm Uri caused power loss and drops in water pressure below the minimum standard at Ullrich.

Update 2/11/22, 1:58 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional background information.