AUSTIN — Following a boil water notice issued to Austin Water customers Oct. 22, Austinites are scrambling to get bottled water from grocery stores across the city.
Historic flooding last week brought high levels of silt into the City of Austin’s water supply, so the city’s water plants are struggling to keep up.
‘It looks like chocolate milk’: Austin issues city-wide boil water notice due to murky water RAW: Austin city officials explain reasoning for city-wide boil water notice Austin’s Lake Travis levels expected to continue slow decline into Monday PHOTOS: A look at how ‘historic’ flooding of Llano River has impacted Central Texas In the meantime, Austin Water customers are asked to boil their water before drinking, cooking with it or using ice.
Hours after the boil water notice was issued, Austinites flocked to local grocery stores to get bottled water, leaving shelves empty.
KVUE’s Jay Wallis saw Austin residents rushing into an H-E-B to fill up on bottled water Monday morning.
At the H-E-B on Far West, shelves were empty when KVUE’s Lauren Petterson arrived at around 5:20 a.m. Katie Lynch said her H-E-B was packed with people getting bottled water.
Ariadyn Hansen tweeted a video of the "longest 6 a.m. line ever" at the H-E-B on Burnet Road.
She said she couldn’t find water at that location.
KVUE’s Kristie Gonzalez said Jo’s Coffee in downtown Austin was not serving coffee or water due to the boil water notice.
Stay tuned with KVUE on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates on the situation.

A recently shared photo demonstrates definitively that not only is buying bottled water wholly unnecessary in Iceland; it can also be even more expensive than you might guess.
Þórólfur Júlían Dagsson, a member of the Pirate Party in Suðurnes, posted the above photo in a status about the larger problems of the price of Icelandic goods in Iceland.
“In Iceland we’re supposed to be ensuring sustainability in food,” he writes.
“But when has that policy actually produced real security and affordable food?
Fish is incredibly expensive.
The same can be said about lamb meat and the water in stores which is more expensive than anywhere else in the western world.” As can be seen, the price for a litre of whole milk from the grocery store Hagkaup is 142 ISK.
One litre of water—which, by the way, is the same water that comes out of the tap—is 165 ISK.
Recently, the Icelandic government launched an initiative to try and educate tourists that there is no need to buy water in stores.
Iceland actually ranks first in the world in Water and Sanitation on the Environmental Performance Index.
Reduces plastic waste, and gives you a fine souvenir from Iceland to bring home.

The City of Austin’s water utility has issued a city-wide boil water notice, as it struggles with the impact of debris from flooding on its water treatment capabilities.
Here are some frequently asked questions from Austin Water: To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking and for making ice should be boiled and cooled prior to consumption.
State laws require that a Boil Water Notice be issued if a water system has (or could have) become contaminated from water main breaks, loss of system pressure, or results of routine sampling in the system.
Bring all water to a rolling boil for at least three minutes, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, food preparation, and water for pets.
Boiling kills harmful bacteria and other organisms in the water that may cause illness.
You should throw away ice made during the time the notice was issued (freezing does not kill bacteria).
Only use boiled or bottled water for cooking, making ice, washing fruits and vegetables, and making baby formula.
If you don’t have bottled water, use water that has been rapidly boiled for at least three minutes.
How long will depend on the conditions that caused the need to boil, how quickly the conditions are corrected, and how long it takes for laboratory results to confirm it is safe to return to normal water use.

With reinstatement of the notice, all of Gulf County is now under a boil water notice.
Safe sources of drinking water include bottled, disinfected or both boiled and cooled water.
Use only safe drinking water.
Drink only commercially available bottled, boiled or disinfected water until your supply is tested and deemed safe.
Otherwise, water should be disinfected or both boiled and cooled before use.
Bringing water to a rolling boil for 1 minute will kill infectious organisms (germs).
Mix the solution and let it stand for 30 minutes.
• Containers for water should be rinsed with a bleach solution of 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water before reusing them.
Do not rely on unverified methods for decontaminating water.
During severe weather and other emergencies, you can count on active alerts from the department’s official social media accounts.

City Manager Michael Hammond has reinstated a boil water notice for the City of Port St. Joe until further notice.
With reinstatement of the notice, all of Gulf County is now under a boil water notice.
Safe sources of drinking water include bottled, disinfected or both boiled and cooled water.
Use only safe drinking water.
Drink only commercially available bottled, boiled or disinfected water until your supply is tested and deemed safe.
Otherwise, water should be disinfected or both boiled and cooled before use.
Bringing water to a rolling boil for 1 minute will kill infectious organisms (germs).
Mix the solution and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Containers for water should be rinsed with a bleach solution of 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water before reusing them.
Do not rely on unverified methods for decontaminating water.

A burning question!
Laboratory tests conducted by the Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department have found bottled water either misbranded or sub-standard or not safe for human intake.
Since there is no stringent law to deal with such unscrupulous companies, the actions being taken against them are limited to issuing notices, warnings, and ban on their business for a few days.
The Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department tested 14 samples of bottled water in 2016-17.
While the wing found two samples as misbranded and as many sub-standard ones, five were not safe for human intake.
The labels of such bottles read either packaged drinking water or mineral added to water or purified water.
Sources further say that a large number of bottles of packaged water of diverse brands are sold daily in Assam.
It is not possible to check each and every bottle of all the brands, and as such food safety officials have to go for random checking.
An official said: “We take action as and when we receive complaints from the public.
We’re going to take stringent action against three companies.

For many city residents the bottles are as empty as the promises of government officials who told them their water was safe to drink.
The river water was 19 times more acidic than the water from Detroit.
The lead problem, which local and state officials denied then downplayed for more than a year while Flint’s residents drank, bathed and cooked with the water, is also blamed for more than 300 miscarriages.
“My children’s lives have been changed forever because the government believed we have no right to clean water,” Ms. Wakes said.
A retest of her water a month later found lead at 397 parts per billion.
She said the state continued to erode public trust in April by declaring the water crisis over and ending free bottled water distribution, even as water service line replacement continued and residents were required to pay to let water run from their taps so anti-corrosion chemicals can recoat the inside of service lines.
“This crisis never should have started or gone on as long as it has,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician in Flint and author of a book about the water crisis, “What the Eyes Don’t See; A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City.” “Uncovering the problem took a series of dominoes — first the moms, then journalists, and pastors and the scientists.” She leaves government officials out of that lineup, saying there’s been an “abandonment of our civic responsibility,” and residents of poor, minority neighborhoods have been disproportionately hurt.
And like Pittsburgh’s mills, Flint’s auto plants started withering in the last quarter of the 20th century.
In some neighborhoods, a lead service line replacement costs more than the value of the house it’s linking to the water system.
Tia Ivory, whose home in Flint had lead water levels above 775 parts per billion — more than 50 times the federal action level — before her water pipes were dug up and replaced, said the water crisis was a case of piling on to preexisting poverty-caused stresses and traumas.

LUCAMA, N.C. (WNCN) – In one Wilson County town, the new normal is bottled water and that’s a problem, according to CBS 17 viewers.
"The state and our local town has told us this is safe to drink.
I don’t believe this is safe to drink," Tiffany Fragoso said.
Fragoso lives in Lucama and she said the town water is undrinkable and unusable.
"It will start to get a metallic taste, and then from there from yellow to brown, and even red," she described.
"We need clean water," Fragoso told CBS 17.
Town Commissioner Patricia Uzzell did.
"I am telling them to drink bottled water," Uzzell said.
I have maxed out credit cards buying water for the town people, and I will keep getting water for the town people."
Until the problem is fixed, many in Lucama said they’ll rely on bottled water.

In a letter, Attorney General Steve Marshall told the West Morgan-East Lawrence Water Authority that Minnesota’s successful $850 million lawsuit against 3M over drinking water contamination followed different laws than exist in Alabama.
Marshall also writes that he’s glad to meet with the water authority to discuss the issue, but he says that from the time he took office in February 2017 until now, “I am not aware of any effort by the West Morgan – East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority or any other plaintiff to contact or meet with me about litigation regarding PFOA and PFOS contamination of the Tennessee River.” The AG’s letter follows the water authority’s request to Marshall and Gov.
Ivey responded Wednesday.
“I understand the concerns of the residents in the Morgan/Lawrence County area,” Ivey wrote.
We will also be working with the Attorney General’s Office to research the request of the West Morgan/East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority.
Marshall said his office is diligently studying the issue, but there are challenges.
“I will note that the State of Minnesota, which your letter references, was able to proceed in litigation under specific theories of liability found in Minnesota state law,” Marshall wrote.
The water authority says it needs a reverse osmosis system which was estimated to cost about $25 million to install, but WMEL officials now say that number will be much higher.
Marshall’s letter Thursday, contending the water authority had not contacted him, follows up on a point raised by the authority in its letter last week.
“We simply requested that the Alabama Attorney General intervene in our case on behalf of Alabamians in the same way that the Attorney General of Minnesota, 3M’s home state, intervened on behalf of his citizens.” But, the letter contends, after Strange’s appointment to the U.S. Senate replacing Jeff Sessions, “the process stalled completely.” Marshall’s letter to the authority says, “It has been the longstanding policy of this office to refrain from publicly commenting on potential litigation, but I would welcome a private discussion of your request.”

According to a new senate fiscal agency report, Flood Law has spent $6.6 million on the case so far.
Senator Jim Ananich says taxpayers should be outraged over the money being spent.
What will $30 million get you these days?
Ananich says some of the lawyers are making more than $1,000 an hour.
In most cases each defendant has more than one lawyer.
James White says " I’m unable to comment…(Joel) Are the lawyers getting rich off the Flint water crisis?
(White) I haven’t received $30 million."
Are the lawyers getting rich off the Flint water crisis?
Senator Jim Ananich says " No question about it."
But a Ketttering University professor, who testified during a preliminary hearing, says money got Flint into the water crisis, so this isn’t the time to pinch pennies.