Boil water notices in effect in west Travis, Hays counties

AUSTIN (KXAN) — People living in parts of Travis and Hays Counties will need to boil their water following a notice by the West Travis County Public Utility Agency while its water system undergoes maintenance.

WTCPUA said it was working on maintenance of a transmission main and so the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, required it to notify water customers who live off U.S. Highway 290 to boil their water. The Headwaters Municipal Utility District (MUD) and Hays County Water Control and Improvement Districts (WCID) 1 and 2 all notified their customers.

People should boil and cool water they plan to use to drink, cook with, or freeze, to get rid of any potential bacteria or microbes. WTCPUA said to boil water for at least two minutes. People can also use bottled water.

Water utilities will alert their customers when boiling is no longer needed.

There are a number of reasons the TCEQ requires boil water notices, according to its website. It does so when something harmful is found, but also as a precaution if there's a situation like low pressure, maintenance, water outages or other factors where there's a chance for negative effects on health.