3/31/2025
WT Staff
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March 31, 2025 1132 am EDT
Are all the right people receiving urgent drinking water advisories?
When a water main breaks or a water pump malfunctions, drinking water can become contaminated with bacteria, necessitating a boil water advisory to ensure public health. With more administrators using third-party apps and privately owned social websites, vital communications can be shared with the wrong people, and some messages are not reaching the people that need them most.
Long term residents may or may not be subscribed for local municipal water alerts direct to their cell phones. Short term residents, transients and tourists are not likely subscribed to receive such notifications. In 2024, the website SafelyHQ hosted public comments about renters not receiving boil water notices in Ojai, California. Another poster comments that they received a boil water notice by a flyer distributed to the door, however this commenter wondered how to boil water during a power outage. With more of the population tuned in to the world wide web for news, are many of us missing vital local emergency messages?
Drinking water distribution systems with 15 or more connections, or serving 25 or more people for at least six months of the year are considered public drinking water facilities subject to Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) laws. The water treatment and distribution systems are required to monitor and report water quality to the EPA via the State authorities, who perform inspections from time to time and respond to investigate complaints.
When water mains break or pumps fail, the pressure drops inside the distribution lines and bacteria contamination can enter the system. Drinking water facilities must then notify water customers to boil water until lab testing confirms the water is safe. Populations most at risk of missing the memo may be the renters, may be the elderly or those without access to the internet. With more travellers and more transient workers and tourists comes more public to notify. Urgent local news may be lost in the crowd of global messaging.
Local radio stations have been the gold standard for broadcasting BWA notices, which is great if all residents and travellers are tuned in to local radio. Some distribution systems are small enough that all the customers can be contacted and notified door to door, and according to our telephone canvassing of NY water facilities, this is a still common practise. During the Toledo Water Crisis of 2014 when toxins from bluegreen algae entered the water system, a "Do not Consume" order was issued. Researchers following up on the incident estimated that up to 20% of residents did not receive the message in the first day, and some media mistakenly announced a "Boil Advisory". Health implications of toxins in drinking water and missing the mark on public notice is a dangerous intersection.
How well do you know your local drinking water facility? Do you receive the annual water quality report in May each year? Have you signed up for drinking water alerts direct from the source? WaterToday issues drinking water advisories to our subscribers, as we search the news and social websites for water main breaks and power outage events impacting drinking water these are published on our maps and alerts are sent out to mobile devices with the hope that we may help close this public notification gap. Sign up through the link top of the page, subscription is free, though your mobile carrier may charge for the SMS.
See our prior article about a home heating oil delivery gone wrong, a private water well contaminated, here.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)protects public health through the administration and delivery of quality drinking water supplies across the USA. The US EPA establishes standards for drinking water, monitors and enforces treatment techniques for surface water and groundwater, sets maximum limits for around 100 contaminants ensuring public disclosure of deviations and discrepancies.
WaterToday opens the record books of the federal drinking water regulator to bring awareness to the local raw water supply and the compliance record of licensed water treatment facilities. The New York Department of Health inspects 8,180 licensed and active public drinking water facilities, reporting the results to the EPA. Check back here for drinking water news and alerts as they arise in NYS.
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