Were you in Yountville this past week? Then “Boil Water Notice” is a familiar phrase as the Town’s water was out of commission for about 48 hours due to water pressure issues at Rector Reservoir. Even the restaurants in town had to close for a day. So what exactly is a Boil Water Notice? And why did Yountville have to issue this advisory?
According to the Unsafe Water Notification Guidance from the State of California, a Boil Water Notice is issued when “the water supply has a microbiological contaminant that can be rendered safe by boiling the water or by using bottled water. The notice may provide detailed instructions for manual disinfection by the consumer, where appropriate. This is the most commonly used notice. Note that Boil Water Notices should not be issued where nitrate concentrations are elevated.”
A Boil Water Notice can be caused by many different factors but all center around the fact that there is a possibility that the water is not safe could cause a threat to public health. This Water Boil Notice for Yountville was due to low water pressure which affects the water treatment process. It all started last Tuesday afternoon, June 15th, when Utility Operations staff received a call from Rector Treatment Plant staff advising the Town to immediately switch over to the City of Napa water supply. This switch was made, and water pressures started in the normal operating range.
Tuesday night Staff received text alerts from the system that pressures were dropping. Staff responded and worked through the night monitoring the system and requested water from the Rector storage tanks to help stabilize the pressures. Their requests were denied. Wednesday morning pressures dropped to an alarming level and calls started to come in from the water customers. Staff reached out to Rector again for help during the morning peak and were again denied. It was then the boil water notice was warranted and issued.
Then staff contacted the City of Napa for help to which they responded, opening a valve up-valley to allow water from the Hennessy Treatment Plant to boost the Town system. We stayed on Napa water until Rector staff contacted Town staff Wednesday afternoon advising they were up and running again and we could return to Rector water supply. Flushing was performed and bacteriological samples were collected. Sample results were received Thursday afternoon and the Town in conjunction with the State Water Resource Control Board were able to lift the boil water notice.
You can check out the Town’s Boil Water Notice to learn more about what exactly needs to be done to sanitize the water during this advisory, and read the full Unsafe Water Notification Guidance for more information about Boil Water Notices and other unsafe water notifications. If your curious to learn more about Yountville’s water situation, as this isn’t the first issue we’ve had, read our in-depth article, Town Water 101.