Boil-water notices

It asks you not to drink or cook with the tap water until you have boiled it. TCEQ says to bring it to a vigorous rolling boil, keep it there at least two minutes, and let it cool. The notice stays in force until your water system rescinds it.

30-1 What the notice means

Chapter 29 dealt with your side of the meter. A boil-water notice comes from the other side. TCEQ says a notice "indicates the water in the distribution system may be unsafe for consumption or may pose an acute health risk."¹ May be is the key. Some notices follow a bad test and others follow a condition such as low pressure. You follow it either way, because nobody can tell by looking.

Texas systems have many listed reasons to issue one. They include a bad bacteria result, high turbidity at the plant, pressure "below 20 pounds per square inch", water outages, "Line breaks or repairs", well and storage problems, treatment plant problems, power outages and natural disasters.¹ Most of those can follow a freeze, which is how a storm like the one in Chapter 27 produces notices in numbers.

The lake behind Figure 30-1 is not a local source, but surface water is. Lamar County Water Supply District lists Pat Mayse Lake and Lake Crook as its sources, and any lake system depends on a working plant between the lake and your tap.²

30-2 How long to boil

TCEQ's wording is to "bring the water to a vigorous rolling boil and then boil it for at least two minutes. You can consume the water after it cools down."³ The CDC gives one minute, or three above 6,500 feet.⁴ Nothing in these counties is that high. Where they differ, this book uses TCEQ's two minutes, and if your own notice gives a longer time, use that.

Boiling deals with germs and little else. The CDC says "You cannot make water containing fuel, toxic chemicals, or radioactive materials safe by boiling or disinfecting it."⁴ If your notice says do not use the water at all, boiling does not get around that.

30-3 Using the water

TCEQ's page goes further than the kettle.¹ These are its suggestions, in short form, and a notice from your system overrides them.

If power is out, boiling may be the hard part. Ready.gov warns against heating a home with a gas stove, and says generators and grills belong outdoors, away from windows.⁵ Keep a store of bottled water for those days (ordinary practice).

30-4 How it ends

A notice ends when your system says so. Your neighbor's kitchen tap running clear is not the test. TCEQ says "The public water system will issue a 'rescind' notice cancelling the boil water notice."³ Before that, the system must have corrected the problem, flushed the lines until disinfectant levels are above the minimums, returned to normal operation, and "Collected bacteriological samples marked as special and have obtained negative coliform results." The rescind notice then says "the water is now safe to drink without boiling."¹

A notice must go out "as soon as possible, but in no case later than 24 hours after the violation or condition occurs."¹ That leaves room for hours of drinking from the tap before you hear. Systems may use radio or TV, a newspaper, direct delivery or posting, or electronic alerts, and the rescind goes out the same way.¹ So learn now how yours does it.

If you do not know who supplies you, TCEQ points to an old bill or to its online lookup.³ TCEQ's sheet calls that Texas Drinking Water Watch. The old address now says it has been retired in favor of the Drinking Water Viewer, at dwv.tceq.texas.gov, which was blocked when checked.⁶ Chapter 2 has other ways to find out.

30-5 If you are on a well

A public system's notice is about the public system's water. A private well has no one to issue a notice, or to rescind one. TCEQ says "If you have a private well, you should disinfect it before you use it" after a disaster.³ Flooding has its own rules, and a flooded well is to be treated as contaminated. Do not drink from it until you have followed Chapter 9 and a lab has said it is clear. Any positive result goes to Chapter 8. AgriLife's well instructions say to boil for one minute, in a different document from a different agency.⁷ Use at least two minutes unless your notice or lab instructions give a longer time.