Drinking Water Warnings Issued to Thousands in Texas

Officials in Texas continue to urge nearly 163,000 residents to boil their drinking water several days after Hurricane Beryl exited the state.

Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 storm near the coastal town of Matagorda, before whipping northeast to directly batter the city of Houston, where over 2.5 million in the area quickly lost their power.

The storm continued to roar through Texas and other portions of the U.S. in a northeasterly path, sparking a swarm of tornadoes in multiple states as it diminished in strength and eventually passed into Canada.

While Beryl left at least 10 people dead in Texas and inflicted significant damage to property, many residents impacted by the hurricane in the Lone Star State were also continuing to struggle with a lack of power and clean drinking water four days later.

By Friday, Texas had more than 700,000 power outages that remained unresolved, while some 162,895 residents in 22 counties were under a “Boil Water Notice” (BWN) due to drinking water systems that had been compromised by the storm.

“As of 12:30pm today, we are tracking 259 drinking water systems that are on a BWN serving a population of 162,895,” a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) told Newsweek via email on Friday. “The drinking water systems on BWNs are spread across 22 counties impacted by the hurricane.”

The following is a list of the affected counties, water systems and number of residents that were still being asked to boil their water as of Friday afternoon:

• Angelina County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 53 residents.
• Brazoria County: 67 water systems under BWN, affecting 28,460 residents.
• Chambers County: 3 water systems under BWN, affecting 446 residents.
• Fort Bend County: 7 water systems under BWN, affecting 10,206 residents.
• Grimes County: 3 water systems under BWN, affecting 756 residents.
• Hardin County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 108 residents.
• Houston County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 9,557 residents.
• Harris County: 57 water systems under BWN, affecting 32,719 residents.
• Liberty County: 9 water systems under BWN, affecting 9,557 residents.
• Matagorda County: 11 water systems under BWN, affecting 4,051 residents.
• Montgomery County: 35 water systems under BWN, affecting 19,963 residents.
• Nacogdoches County: 2 water systems under BWN, affecting 9,834 residents.
• Orange County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 99 residents.
• Polk County: 33 water systems under BWN, affecting 24,285 residents.
• San Augustine County: 5 water systems under BWN, affecting 4,170 residents.
• San Jacinto County: 12 waters systems under BWN, affecting 5,687 residents.
• Trinity County: 4 water systems under BWN, affecting 3,038 residents.
• Tyler County: 2 water systems under BWN, affecting 5,880 residents.
• Upshur County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 3,038 residents.
• Walker County: 2 water systems under BWN, affecting 653 residents.
• Waller County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 240 residents.
• Wharton County: 1 water system under BWN, affecting 40 residents.

Residents who are uncertain about the safety of their drinking water should contact their local water utility for additional information and updates.

Water systems can be damaged by hurricanes and other powerful storms due to power outages, service line breaks or flooding, potentially allowing what would otherwise be safe drinking water to become contaminated by dangerous pathogens.

In systems under a BWN, water may not be safe to drink unless it has been boiled vigorously for at least two minutes. The TCEQ website offers a series of safe water use tips for those affected.