A boil water notice Tampa homeowners receive is a utility event, not a leak in your walls. Until the utility lifts it, treat the tap as unsafe to drink. Bring water to a rolling boil for one minute. Dump ice made from the tap. Skip fridge filters and the ice dispenser. Leave the dishwasher off unless your utility says a sanitizing cycle counts. After the lift, flush cold outdoor taps first, then hot indoor taps and the water heater. Call a plumber only if the meter still moves, or a fixture will not hold pressure, after the utility says the system is restored.
This page is not a live notice board. Check the utility that bills you, the City’s boil water notice page, or Hillsborough’s own notice page before you assume a notice is on or off. Alert Tampa and HCFLAlert are how those utilities push the large-area alerts.
What a boil water notice in Tampa actually is
The City of Tampa issues a Precautionary Boil Water Notice when pressure drops far enough that contaminants could enter the mains. The City’s boil water notice page names the usual triggers: “a broken water main, a loss of power, or a scheduled outage for repairs.”
A precautionary notice is not a lab result. The City’s water FAQ says a Precautionary Boil Water Notice “does not mean that the water is contaminated, but, because the quality of the water is unknown, customers should take precautions and assume that the water is unsafe for drinking.” The City also says it issues these notices “as a precaution even when contamination is unlikely.”
Hillsborough County draws a sharper line on its boil water notices page. Most notices are precautionary: “an incident occurred in which there is a slight chance of backflow or bacteria entering the drinking water system,” including “low or no water pressure or a water line break.” A mandatory notice is different. The county issues that one “when the drinking water system has confirmed results of contaminants in water tests exceeding an allowable level.”
How you hear about it depends on the size of the outage. Limited City of Tampa jobs get a printed notice hung on the front door. Larger events go out through press, social, and Alert Tampa. Hillsborough does the same split: a door hanger on a small area, and HCFLAlert plus the county site when a notice hits 400 or more households and businesses.
Neither utility promises a clock you can set. Tampa says the notice stays in effect for several days, typically two, “while bacteriological tests are conducted to assure the safety of the water.” Hillsborough says notices are rescinded after tests confirm the water is safe, “generally 48 hours later, but the time can vary depending on the testing required.” Wait for the lift. Don’t guess.
Storm week on the South Shore is when this shows up as a neighborhood event. A main break in Seminole Heights can be a single block and a door hanger. A pressure drop after a named storm in Apollo Beach or Ruskin can cover a much wider map. The plumbing aftercare is the same either way. The hurricane season plumbing checklist covers the storm prep that sits next to this. The pressure drop that triggers a notice is also why irrigation and pool lines need a backflow test.
A private well in Odessa or San Antonio is not on a City of Tampa or Hillsborough County boil notice. Flooding can still contaminate a well. That is a test of your own system, not this sequence.
What to do with taps, ice, filters, and the dishwasher
Boil first. Hillsborough’s instruction is the one to follow at the kettle: “Bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 MINUTE, then allow the water to COOL BEFORE USE.” The City of Tampa’s wording is the same idea: bring the water to a rolling boil and hold it there for one minute. Hillsborough prefers boiling over bleach “since disinfection does not kill certain parasites.” Bleach is the power-outage fallback on that page, not the first choice.
Don’t drink from anything still tied to the house lines.
- Bring tap water to a rolling boil and hold it for one minute before you drink it, cook with it, or brush your teeth.
- Throw out ice made from tap water, including the automatic ice-maker bin and anything sitting in trays.
- Don’t drink from the fridge dispenser, a pitcher filter, or a typical under-sink cartridge, because those filters are built for taste, not pathogens.
- Skip the dishwasher until the notice is lifted unless your utility says a sanitizing cycle is enough.
The City is blunt about appliances: “Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water lines. This includes the water and ice dispensers in your refrigerator/freezer.” On ice, Tampa says “Throw out all ice made with tap water.” Hillsborough is shorter: “Discard the ice cubes.”
Filters will fool you here. Tampa’s FAQ says kitchen-faucet and refrigerator filters “are there in order to improve the aesthetic aspects of water quality, such as odor and taste, not to remove harmful pathogens such as bacteria.” The City’s notice page adds that most household filters “typically do not remove or kill all bacteria or viruses.” Bypass them. Don’t treat filtered fridge water as the workaround.
The dishwasher is the one appliance the two utilities do not word the same way. Hillsborough allows it “Only if your model has a sanitizing cycle.” Tampa says household dishwashers “generally are safe to use” if you can set a hot-water rinse or sanitizing cycle. If you do not have that cycle, skip the dishwasher until the notice is lifted. Use boiled or bottled water on dishes you cannot wait on.
Showers are still allowed if you do not swallow the water. Brushing teeth is not. Use boiled or bottled water for that.
What to do with the water heater while the notice is on
The tank is a reservoir of the same water that is under the notice. Hot doesn’t make it drinkable. Don’t fill a bottle from the hot side and call it done.
Leave the heater in its normal operating mode unless your utility or a licensed plumber tells you to shut it down for a separate reason. Draining the tank is not the City’s aftercare, and it is not Hillsborough’s either. The work after the lift is a flush, not a teardown.
If the heater never recovered pressure, will not make hot water, or starts leaking after the outage, that is no longer the notice. That is a private water heater problem, and the plumbers we send diagnose that on its own.
After the utility lifts the notice
Flush cold, then hot. Tampa’s FAQ writes the household sequence the notice pages leave out:
After the boil water notice is lifted, flush the water out of your distribution lines. Start with an outdoor faucet furthest from your meter and flush all outdoor faucets. Run hot water through each indoor faucet until you notice a change in water temperature. Remove the aerator before flushing kitchen and bathroom sink faucets. Run enough hot water to flush the hot water heater. If you have an automatic icemaker, empty the ice tray several times to ensure that the line to the ice maker is flushed.
That outdoor faucet is the cold supply. Starting there clears the incoming line before you pull that water through indoor aerators and the heater. Then the hot side replaces what sat in the tank. Hillsborough points to the Florida Department of Health for the duration: run the water for five minutes at each tap, and include misters, drinking fountains, and ice makers, “discard the first bin full.”
Dump the ice again after that flush. Make the next batch from the restored supply.
Fridge filters stay on the “it depends” list. Tampa says that in the typical precautionary case, if water-quality tests do not show contamination, you will not need to replace the filter. In the rare case those tests show bacteria or another contaminant that boiling would have neutralized, replace it. If you are not sure which kind of notice you were under, check the lift message from your utility before you buy a cartridge.
The dishwasher can go back on after the lift. Don’t run it as a shortcut during the notice unless your machine actually has the sanitizing cycle your utility named.
When a boil water notice is actually a private plumbing problem
The utility owns the notice, the mains, and the lift. It does not own the pipe from your meter to the house, and it does not own a faucet that will not hold pressure after the rest of the block is back.
| What you see | Who owns it | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Door hanger, Alert Tampa, or HCFLAlert after a main break or pressure drop | Your water utility | Boil, dump ice, skip filters, wait for the official lift |
| Neighbors have pressure again, and your meter still moves with every fixture off | Private plumbing on your side of the meter | Run the two-hour meter test, then call a plumber |
| One fixture will not hold pressure after the lift, and the rest of the house is fine | Private fixture, valve, or branch | Compare nearby fixtures, then call a plumber |
| Brown or rusty water with no boil notice | Often sediment or old pipe, not a contamination notice | Use the brown-water test, not this sequence |
Hillsborough’s meter rule is the one that settles the leak question: “Wait two hours, making sure not to use any water in your home or lawn, and then check your water meter again. The two readings should be identical.” Our high water bill guide walks through that test. If the register still climbed, close the house valve using the steps in our water shutoff guide. Movement with that valve closed points at the buried line from the meter to the house, which is your water line, not the city’s main.
A fixture that will not hold pressure after the utility says the system is restored is the other private tell. Weak flow that started with the outage and never came back is a low-pressure problem on your side. The plumbers we send use leak detection when the meter keeps moving and nothing in the house is running.
Don’t treat a boil notice as permission to open the city’s curb stop. The City of Tampa tells customers the fastest shutoff is the private valve on the house, typically in line with the meter box.
City of Tampa customers with notice questions can call the Utilities Call Center at (813) 274-8811. That is the City’s line, not ours.
How this differs from brown tap water
Brown water is a color problem. A boil notice is a contamination watch. They get mixed up after hydrant flushing and main repairs because both can follow work in the street.
The City of Tampa describes hydrant-flush discoloration as harmless silt and precipitates. That statement does not travel over to a boil notice. If your utility hung a notice, boil. If the water is only rusty and nobody issued a notice, follow our brown tap water test at the front spigot before you assume the pipes are failing.
The two can stack. A main break can stir sediment and drop pressure in the same afternoon. Handle the notice first. Diagnose color after the lift.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use ice from my refrigerator during a boil water notice?
No. Dump the ice-maker bin and any trays filled from the tap. Tampa says to throw out all ice made with tap water. After the lift, empty the bin again so the feed line flushes, which is also what Hillsborough’s Department of Health note is getting at with “discard the first bin full.”
Do I need a plumber because a boil water notice was issued?
Not for the notice itself. The utility issues it, tests the mains, and lifts it. Call a plumber if the meter still moves with everything off, or if a fixture will not hold pressure after the utility says service is restored. That is private plumbing.
Is a boil water notice the same as brown tap water?
No. Brown water is rust, iron, or sediment. A boil notice is the utility telling you the quality of the water is unknown after a pressure loss, or, in Hillsborough’s mandatory case, that tests already found a problem. Color without a notice is a different page.
Should I drain the water heater during a boil water notice?
No. Tampa’s aftercare is to run enough hot water after the lift to flush the heater, not to dump the tank during the notice. Drain it only if a plumber finds a separate private failure, such as a leak or a unit that will not recover pressure.
When to call us
Call when the utility has restored the system and your house still won’t behave: the meter keeps moving, or a fixture won’t hold pressure. We’ll match you with a licensed local plumber for that private side, including emergency plumbing if water is actively escaping. Reach us at (813) 590-0625.