Boil Water Advisory in Metro Atlanta: What to Do Right Now

Do this now

1. Stop drinking straight from the tap. Use bottled water, or boil your tap water first, for drinking, cooking, food prep, making ice, mixing baby formula and brushing your teeth.
2. To boil: bring the water to a full rolling boil and keep it there for 1 minute. Let it cool before you use it. If it looks cloudy, let it settle or pour it through a clean cloth, paper towel or coffee filter first. Store it in clean containers with tight covers.
3. Skip the water and ice from your refrigerator door. And boil water even if it went through a home filter or a filter pitcher.
4. Check that the advisory covers your address. Each utility issues its own, so a City of Atlanta advisory does not cover Gwinnett County water customers. Look at your utility's notice and map. If you lost water or pressure but your address is outside the area described, the City of Atlanta recommended in a 2019 advisory that you follow the same precautions. If your water was off, boil it once service comes back.
5. Feeding a baby? Breastfeeding is safest. If you use formula, ready-to-feed formula is the next safest choice. If powdered formula is all you have, mix it with bottled or boiled water, and clean bottles and feeding items with bottled, boiled or treated water and soap before each use.
6. Dishes: use disposable plates and cups if you can. A dishwasher is generally fine if it has a sanitizing cycle or a final rinse of at least 150°F. By hand, wash and rinse in hot water as usual, then soak for at least 1 minute in a separate basin with 1 teaspoon of unscented household liquid bleach per gallon of warm water, and let everything air dry completely.
7. Showers are fine if nobody swallows the water. For babies and young children, consider a sponge bath so they do not swallow water. Laundry can go on as usual. Give pets bottled water or boiled water that has cooled.
8. When your utility lifts the advisory, flush your plumbing before normal use: fully open the sink and shower faucets on each floor, for as long as your utility's notice says. Throw out any ice left in your ice maker, then let it make a new batch and throw that out too. Some agencies say to toss the first two new batches.