More than 1,300 homes, townhomes and apartments near Tega Cay are under a boil water advisory after routine testing turned up elevated levels of E. coli and total coliform in the drinking water supply. York County Utilities issued the notice Thursday afternoon for the Hawks Creek and Waterstone neighborhoods, along with areas off Stockbridge and Coralstone drives, and the advisory covers homes, businesses and community facilities alike.
According to heraldonline.com, the bacteria were flagged through a routine test rather than a pipe break or spill, a York County spokesperson told the outlet. The WCCB Charlotte report on the advisory, authored by DJ Beal, notes the affected zone falls within unincorporated York County areas near Tega Cay and also reaches utility customers in the Palmetto West area. The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services informed York County Utilities that the advisory was necessary once the elevated readings came back.
Who's Covered and What to Boil For
The footprint is notably large for a single advisory. Beyond Hawks Creek and Waterstone, the area includes the Harris Teeter-anchored Stockbridge Commons shopping center with its restaurants, a church, a community pool and a York County water tower, per the same heraldonline.com account.
Residents and businesses in the affected zone are being told to vigorously boil water for at least one minute before drinking it or cooking with it. Boiled and cooled water should also be used for brushing teeth, washing produce, preparing baby formula, making ice and giving water to pets, according to the advisory details relayed by the station's report.
When Could It Be Lifted
The advisory stays in place until the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services determines there is no longer a public health concern, per the WCCB Charlotte report. York County has prioritized a retest of the water supply and anticipates an update from the state agency within 48 hours, with officials saying they will send an immediate additional alert to residents once testing confirms the water is safe to consume.
A String of Water Issues Since Spring
This is not York County's first brush with water trouble this year, though it is the first to trigger a boil order. Since setting up a new alert system in March for water issues, the county has logged five water outage or low-pressure events, and none of those required a boil water advisory, according to heraldonline.com. An outage this month and a similar one in June affected parts of Lake Wylie, while three incidents in May involved low pressure, two in Lake Wylie and one in the Regent Park area of Fort Mill, the outlet reported.
A boil water advisory did strike the county last year under similar circumstances. In September 2025, E. coli was detected in a water sample collected on the western side of York County, as reported by wbtv.com. Officials said at the time that one of 30 routine water samples had tested positive for the bacteria, prompting the advisory, which primarily affected customers in the Lake Wylie area and extended toward Rock Hill. That advisory was lifted after retest results came back clear, officials said.
