Boil-water notices: how to confirm yours

The tap looks fine. That is not the test. After a flood, lines break, plants lose pressure, and a boil-water notice can land on one zip code and not the next.

City of Houston Public Works / Houston Water covers a lot of the city. Plenty of Harris County homes sit on MUDs and other districts with their own alerts. Your sister in Pearland is not your notice.

Do not rinse a wound or mix a baby bottle on a guess.

Do this now

Find who sells you water: City of Houston, a MUD, or another district. The bill or the meter letter has the name.
Check that utility’s site, official social account, or 311 for a current boil-water notice.
If a notice is on, boil or use bottled water for drink, cook, brush, and dish rinse.
If someone already drank questionable water and is sick, call a doctor or Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

How to boil, when that is the order

A rolling boil for a full minute is the usual public-health instruction at our elevation. Let it cool in a clean covered pot. If you cannot boil, bottled water or the disinfection steps your utility posted. Do not invent a bleach recipe from memory. If the notice says do not use the tap at all, that is different from a boil notice. Read the actual words.

What else the tap touches

Ice makers, pet bowls, the coffee pot, and the kids’ toothbrush. Ice made during a notice is trash. Filters do not make a boil notice go away. A fridge filter is not a treatment plant. If you have a private well, that is a separate, uglier problem. Do not drink well water after inundation until it is tested. City notices do not cover your well.

When they lift it

Flush the lines the way the utility says, usually running taps for a few minutes. Dump the ice and the leftover boiled stash if you want the taste gone. Do not assume the neighbor’s lift applies to you. Notices are by system, sometimes by zone. Houstonians often report they heard “it’s lifted” on a group chat a day early. Wait for the utility.

Verify live. Status changes hourly. Confirm on City of Houston Public Works / Houston Water, your MUD site, or 311. Notices change by zone and by the hour after a main break.