Water news & alerts · updated September 16, 2026
Suncoast water alerts.
What every local utility is doing right now.
Boil water notices, chlorine conversions, taste and odor changes — all fourteen utilities we serve, on one page, with the date each one was last checked and a link to the utility’s own notice. One is active today.
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Active right now
Two alerts are live
across our service area.
Why your water smells like chlorine right now — what a conversion is, and what actually reduces it →
Last checked: September 18, 2026. We check each utility’s notices and annual water quality reports, and we update this board when something changes. We are not the official source — if something here affects you, confirm it with your utility. Their notice always wins.
Read the full explainer — why Tampa water tastes different right now
The active alert, in full
Tampa water tastes like a pool
right now. Here’s why.
Most of the Tampa Bay region disinfects with chloramine — chlorine combined with a small amount of ammonia. Chloramine is stable, which is exactly why utilities use it: it survives the long trip through hundreds of miles of water mains and still shows up at the far end of the system.
That stability has a trade-off. A system running on chloramine year-round can slowly accumulate biological film inside the mains. Temporarily switching to free chlorine — harsher, faster-acting — scrubs the network, then the utility switches back. Operators across the region do it on a schedule. The city’s own words: chlorine “helps maintain water quality throughout our water mains and service lines,” and the water “will remain safe to drink and use throughout this period.”
The city says customers “may notice a slight change in the taste or smell.” In our experience, slight is doing some work in that sentence. People sensitive to chlorine notice it immediately, especially in a hot shower, where it comes out of the water as vapor.
What it means for your softener, your RO and your fish tank
What it means for your equipment
Your system probably handles this.
One of them needs checking.
This is the part nobody covers, so here is the straight version by what you actually have.
The one that actually matters: if your RO prefilters are past due — or you honestly cannot remember the last time they were changed — this is the month to change them, whoever installed the system. Do it yourself, call your installer, or call us. A prefilter is cheap. The membrane it protects is not. We would rather you keep it than buy a new one.
Boil water notices — what they mean and what to do
Evergreen
What a boil water
notice actually means.
Different thing entirely from what Tampa is doing. When one lands in our area it goes at the top of this page — but here is what to do, so you are not reading it for the first time in an emergency.
What is a boil water notice?
A precautionary order issued when a utility cannot confirm the water leaving its system is free of bacteria — usually after a main break, a pressure loss, or a failed sample. Most are precautionary and lift within a day or two after two clean samples come back from the lab.
What do I actually do during one?
Bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or giving it to pets. Bottled water works too. Showering and laundry are generally fine unless the utility says otherwise. Throw out ice made during the notice.
Does my water softener or filter make it safe to drink?
No. A softener reduces hardness. A carbon filter reduces taste, odor and disinfectant. Neither is designed or certified to handle bacteria, and you should not treat either as protection during a boil water notice. Boil it or buy it, and follow the utility. This is one of the few places where the honest answer is that our equipment is not the answer.
What about my reverse osmosis system?
An RO membrane does reduce bacteria, but a boil water notice is not the time to rely on it — the system is not certified as a microbiological purifier and the notice exists because the utility cannot verify what is in the line. Boil or use bottled water until the notice lifts, then change the filters.
What should I do after it lifts?
Run every cold tap for several minutes, flush and dump the first few batches of ice, and replace the filter cartridges on any point-of-use system — refrigerator, under-sink RO, faucet filter. They caught whatever came through the line.
Is a chlorine conversion the same thing?
No. A conversion is planned maintenance published weeks ahead, nothing was detected, and the water stays in normal use. A boil water notice is unplanned and tells you not to drink the water without boiling it first. If you are unsure which one you are looking at, call your utility — the number is on your bill.
Where every line on this page comes from
Where this comes from
Every line on this page
has a source.
We do not have inside information and we are not the official channel. Everything above is read off the utilities’ own notices and annual water quality reports, and we tell you when we last checked.
- City of Tampa — Tampa Water Department Temporarily Changing Disinfection Process, September 2026 (tampa.gov)
- Hillsborough County — Tampa Water Department Project to Temporarily Affect Some Hillsborough Water Customers, September 10, 2026 (hcfl.gov)
- Manatee County Utilities — 2025 Annual Water Quality Report and UCMR5 results
- City of Bradenton — 2025 Water Quality Report
- Hillsborough County Water Resources — 2025 South-Central Water Quality Report
- Sarasota County, City of Sarasota, Venice, North Port, Englewood — 2025 annual reports and conversion notices
- Pinellas County Utilities and City of St. Petersburg — most recent annual reports
- Pinellas County Utilities — Water System Maintenance Program schedule, 2026 (pinellas.gov)
- Charlotte County Utilities and City of Punta Gorda — 2025 annual reports
Products we offer
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Every certification above is a per-model listing you can check yourself on wqa.org. Not sure which one is yours? Start with the free water test.
