Water customers across Maricopa, Arizona woke up this week to a familiar and unwelcome warning: boil your tap water before you drink it, cook with it, or even brush your teeth with it. Global Water-Santa Cruz Water Company issued the precautionary advisory after two preliminary tests suggested the city's tap water could be contaminated with E. coli, and officials say they won't know for sure for about another day.
The utility says the advisory is precautionary, and that the presence of E. coli in the water system is not yet confirmed, according to inmaricopa.com. Repeat sampling is required to confirm whether the bacteria is actually present, and the utility says it will take approximately 24 hours to receive those results. FOX 10 Phoenix reports the advisory was issued out of an abundance of caution while the utility waits on that second round of testing.
Until then, Global Water-Santa Cruz Water Company customers in Maricopa are being told to treat every drop of tap water with suspicion. The guidance covers water used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth and washing dishes, and residents are instructed to bring that water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before letting it cool. The advisory applies even to water that has already passed through a home filter or filtering pitcher — boiling is still required. Bottled water is being offered as an acceptable substitute for anyone who'd rather skip the stovetop step.
Why Boiling, and Not Just Filtering
Boiling is the standard fix here because it kills bacteria, viruses and other organisms that can cause disease — something a basic filter pitcher isn't designed to guarantee on its own. That's why the guidance specifically tells customers to boil their water even if it's already been run through a filter. As of the advisory, there's no announced expiration date for when the boil-water order will be lifted, with the timeline tied to those pending confirmation results.
Global Water says it will post updates on its website as more information becomes available, per azfamily.com. City officials in Maricopa have echoed the same precautionary message, advising residents to boil their drinking water while the utility works through the testing process.
An Echo of Last Summer's Scare
This isn't the first time Maricopa residents have been told to eye their tap water warily. Last September, the Maricopa City Council heard an update on steps Global Water took after an E. coli detection the previous August, the same inmaricopa.com report notes. At that meeting, utility representatives said they'd found one positive E. coli test that August, followed by multiple confirmation tests that all came back non-detect, according to citizenportal.ai. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality was reported to have determined that earlier incident was resolved.
Following that scare, Global Water pulled 39 additional samples, all of which tested negative for the bacteria, and the utility noted it already tests about 90 samples a month — placing it in the 90th percentile statewide for testing volume, per the same inmaricopa.com report. The utility also said at the time it was reviewing ways to shorten testing turnaround and improve how it communicates with the public, a commitment now being tested again as Maricopa customers wait on this latest round of results.
