State requires boil-water advisory for Mancos town water

Everyone who gets water from the Town of Mancos should boil it or use bottled water until further notice, the town said Friday afternoon. It said the state has required a boil/bottle water advisory for the town’s municipal water system.

In a notice headed “URGENT PUBLIC NOTICE – BOIL/BOTTLE WATER ADVISORY,” posted on the town’s Facebook page, the town said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) required the advisory, effective Nov. 6. It applies to all customers of the town’s system, homes and businesses alike.

The town gave this reason: “Due to ongoing impacts from the recent flooding, the Town was required to allow inadequately treated water into the distribution system to maintain system pressure.”

“Inadequately treated water may contain disease-causing organisms,” the notice says. “This advisory has been issued to protect public health.”

That is a change from Thursday. The town warned then that it could run out of treated water, because flood sediment in the river had cut how much water its treatment plant could make. At that point it said the quality of the water was unaffected.

What to do

The town asks everyone on its system to:

• Bring tap water to a full, rolling boil for 3 minutes, and let it cool before using it.
• Use boiled or commercially bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, preparing infant formula, washing fruits and vegetables, and making ice.
• Not drink unboiled tap water, or ice from refrigerators and icemakers connected to the town’s system.
• Give pets boiled or bottled water.
• Take extra care that babies and young children don’t swallow water while bathing.

The town also asks residents to keep conserving water and to cut nonessential use while it deals with the flood damage.

The notice does not name a place to get drinking water, and the Mancos Water Dock, the town’s public fill station, has been closed since Thursday. Bottled water and jugs of drinking water are being handed out at Mancos Brewing Company, 484 Highway 160 East Frontage Road. Mancos United and The Cookout run that site with Montezuma County. It was set up after the Mancos Rural Water main break, and the county asked for more volunteers there on Friday morning.

How long it will last

“The advisory will remain in effect until CDPHE determines that the water system is operating properly and providing safe drinking water,” the town said. It is working with the state on corrective actions, flushing the distribution system and testing water quality, and “the advisory will not be lifted until CDPHE provides written authorization.”

The town said it will post updates on its Facebook page and its website, and it asked people to share the notice with neighbors who aren’t on social media. As of Friday afternoon, the advisory was not yet on the news page of the town’s website, mancoscolorado.com.

What residents are saying

Under the town’s post, one resident asked why the town wasn’t using Montezuma County’s emergency alert system. She said she gets alerts when Mancos Rural Water has a line break “but not when the town of Mancos water has a disruption or important alerts.”

“There has been so much contradictory and delayed communication around emergency water notices on social media and many have had to rely on word of mouth on this,” she wrote. “Kind of a big deal too when it involves boil notices for potential water contamination. It’s really hard to know how to prepare and plan like this.”

Another commenter wrote: “Y’all are giving this town some serious whiplash.”

A different version of the notice went around first. It was an image dated Nov. 6 and headed “Town of Mancos,” and it called the measure a “Boil Water Order.” It was shared in the Cortez What’s Up Facebook group about two hours before the town’s post. “No alerts sent to residents on this. Lots of people not on FB,” one commenter there wrote. Others said they could not find that version on the town’s page. The notice the town has up now calls the measure a boil/bottle water advisory and says the state required it.

On Thursday’s warning about the treated-water supply, a resident had asked how long service would be off if the water were shut off: “Please provide as much information as possible so we can plan ahead.”

Two systems, two boil orders

The town’s system is separate from Mancos Rural Water Company, which serves customers outside town. Mancos Rural Water customers have been under their own boil order since its main broke on Tuesday, which left about 653 customers without water. As of Friday, no all-clear had been published for that order. That means both water systems in the Mancos area are now telling customers to boil their water.

What the notice does not say

The notice does not say when inadequately treated water first went into the town’s pipes, which part of the treatment process was bypassed, how many homes and businesses are on the town’s system, or whether anyone has reported getting sick. Town Hall’s number is 970-533-7725.

Update, November 6, 2026: The Town of Mancos posted the same notice on its own website on Friday evening, at mancoscolorado.com. The Current checked the town’s website and Facebook page, the Montezuma County website and the county’s Facebook page on Friday evening: no agency has published an all-clear, and the town’s notice still says the advisory stays in place until the state gives written authorization to lift it. Mancos Rural Water’s separate boil order also stands, with no all-clear published.

Sources: Town of Mancos, “URGENT PUBLIC NOTICE – BOIL/BOTTLE WATER ADVISORY,” Facebook, posted November 6, 2026 · Town of Mancos, “Public Service Announcement - Municipal Water Supply Update” and “PUBLIC NOTICE - TEMPORARY MANCOS WATER DOCK CLOSURE,” posted November 5, 2026 · Town of Mancos, “COMMUNITY UPDATE – SANDBAGS & STUDENT VOLUNTEERS,” Facebook, posted November 5, 2026 · Montezuma County Public Alerts System, “Montezuma County Volunteers Needed,” sent November 6, 2026