Without getting too detailed, it means the folks living in the affected areas should observe the following precautions until the boil water advisories get lifted (or canceled):

• Boil water for one minute prior to drinking or food preparation, or use bottled water.
   
• Dispose of ice cubes and do not use ice from a household automatic icemaker until authorities give the all clear notification and you have purged your home’s water lines and the water line leading to the icemaker.
   
• Disinfect dishes and other food contact surfaces by immersion for at least one minute in clean (boiled) tap water or bottled water that contains one teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water. Note: The more ‘gunk’ a surface has on it, the quicker the bleach level in your wash water will diminish.
   
• Water used for bathing typically does not need to get boiled prior to use however during showering and bathing one should take care not to ingest water. Children should have supervision to discourage accidental ingesting of bath/shower water and persons with cuts, severe rashes or other afflictions of the skin should consult their physician prior to bathing, as unwanted bacteria in the water could possibly enter their body through those areas.
   
• If tap water appears dirty, flush the water lines by letting the water run until it clears before using the water. After the all clear notification goes out you should run water from all available taps, faucets and spigots for a few minutes to purge your home’s water system of older, possibly contaminated water.

What Triggers Boil Water Advisories?

Municipal water systems have a slight amount of pressure in them that forces water out through any available openings in the systems. Usually those openings consist of faucets, drinking fountains, spigots, etc. Water systems do not exist in a stress-free vacuum, though, so over time small cracks, leaks and fissures may form in pipes… and as long as the system remains pressurized no outside matter can typically infiltrate the systems.

But, when a water main breaks or some other event causes a pressure drop to occur in the system, the lack of pressure in the system could allow foreign matter such as bacteria, parasites and/or unwanted debris to slip into the system through those cracks and/or fissures in pipes.

When that happens, water companies will issue boil water advisories through local media outlets. Once water pressure gets restored and tests come back negative for system contamination, water companies will cancel the boil water advisories.

“The news is full of boil water advisories in my state recently. Maybe I never paid attention before and they were always in the news but since now I am paying attention I want to know why do cities advertise boil water advisories?”

A very good question, indeed, and not one that has a definite set of answers… though we will attempt to give a few reasons anyways explaining why cities might issue boil water advisories.

1. Water main breaks: Unexpected ruptures in the previously sealed system may allow unwanted bacteria and other contaminants to enter the water supply.
2. Scheduled water line maintenance: Opening the previously sealed water line for any reason, even for scheduled maintenance, can allow unwanted contaminants access to the water supply.
3. Pump failures: If a pump or related component fails water pressure in the lines drops. When that happens, back pressure in the water lines could possibly ‘suck’ unwanted contaminants into water supply via small cracks or fissures ordinarily not considered a problem because normal operating pressure expels water out through those openings in the form of small leaks.
   

   WaterSafe All-in-One Test Kit Tests for Bacteria, Lead, Pesticides, Nitrates, Nitrites, Chlorine, pH, and Hardness

4. Water quality testing reveals contamination: Seemingly an obvious reason, but we mention it to remind everyone that municipal and private water treatment facilities must, by law, perform a set number of tests on the water they distribute each and every day, hour, week and month.

   If a predetermined number of tests come back positive for bacteria the facility must, by law, notify local authorities who will issue a boil water alert until the situation gets remedied.

Having said what we just said, we’d now like to take a moment to thank the dedicated men and women who spend their days monitoring the quality of the drinking water too many people take for granted.

Interested in learning more about the quality of the tap water in YOUR area? Contact you local water treatment facility or health department and ask for the most recent Water Quality Report. By law they have to provide you with a hard copy or the link to where they have the information posted online.

What does boiling the water do?

Quite simply, it kills off any potentially harmful that may have slipped into the water supply on its way to your home or office. Do make sure you bring the water to a full rolling boil before use and make sure you do not leave the water sitting around too long out in the open (unsealed) because boiling will have also removed any disinfectants normally found in your water that provide a buffer against incidental bacteria floating around in the air.

One danger associated with boiling water, aside from the risk of getting scalded or badly burned by hot water, has to do with metals in drinking water. Boiling water concentrates the metals — if present in the source water — so if your water normally contains dissolved metals you may want to consider switching to bottled water instead of boiling your water until the boil water advisory gets lifted.

Interested in removing metals from your drinking water? You may want to consider a reverse osmosis water filtration system.