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Questions or Comments: pdws@tceq.texas.gov

How to Issue a Boil Water Notice to Customers of a Noncommunity PWS

Step-by-step instructions for notifying customers to boil water.

These instructions apply to you if you own or operate a noncommunity public water system—for example, the water system at a camp, prison, school, or similar facility. When you must tell your customers to boil water before using it for drinking, food preparation, or washing:

  1. Notify customers within 24 hours.
  2. Using the appropriate mandatory language, prepare a boil water notice in English and, if necessary, Spanish.
  3. Issue the notice in at least one of these ways:
    • by hand delivery
      –or–
    • by continuously posting the notice in conspicuous places within the area served by your PWS until we tell you that you may take it down
  4. Within 10 days of issuing this or any other notice mentioned in these steps, send a copy of the actual notice and the signed Certificate of Delivery of Public Notice to Customers to us via email to PWSBWN@tceq.texas.gov, via fax to (512) 239-3666, or via mail to [30 TAC Subsection 290.122(f)]:

    Boil Water Notice, MC-155
    TCEQ
    PO Box 13087
    Austin TX 78711-3087

  5. If you hand-delivered the initial notice, for as long as the violation or situation exists, hand-deliver a follow-up notice every three months.  After each follow-up notice, complete a Certificate of Delivery of Public Notice to Customers as described in Step 4 and submit it to us with a copy of the notice issued.
  6. When it is no longer necessary for your customers to boil water, issue another notice in the same way you issued the original notice. Then, as described in Step 4, complete a Certificate of Delivery of Public Notice to Customers and submit it to us with a copy of this notice.

If you have any questions about these instructions, e-mail the BWN program or call 512-239-4691 and ask to speak with a “Public Notice” expert in our Drinking Water Special Functions Section.

Rules governing these requirements are:

Title 30, Texas Administrative Code, Subsection 290.46(q)(1)

30 TAC 290.47(e)

30 TAC 290.122(a)(3)(C)