Mancos lifts its boil water advisory

Mancos can drink its tap water again.

The Town of Mancos lifted its boil water advisory at 2:45 p.m. on Friday, November 13, eight days after the state required it, and said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had signed off.

“The Town of Mancos is pleased to announce that the boil water advisory has officially been lifted, effective immediately,” the town said in a notice posted on its website and on the Town Hall of Mancos Facebook page.

“Following extensive work by Town crews to restore our water treatment and distribution systems, water quality testing has been completed, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has authorized the Town to lift the advisory.”

Residents and businesses “may now resume normal use of tap water, including drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, and food preparation,” the notice says. “Boiling water before use is no longer necessary.”

On the information sheet the town published with the notice, the state is more specific: “Town of Mancos collected water samples for bacteria and chlorine levels. All water test results indicated that the drinking water meets all safety standards for human consumption.”

Montezuma County passed the news on through its own Facebook page on Friday afternoon: “The boil water advisory for the Town of Mancos has been lifted!”

What the state asks you to do now

Lifting the advisory does not mean nothing is left to do. The state’s sheet tells households and businesses to flush their own plumbing, whether or not they lost pressure:

• Run each cold-water tap for five minutes. Then run the hot-water taps until the water turns cool, if you have a hot water tank, or for five minutes each if you have an on-demand system. There may be air in the lines; let the water run until the sputtering stops.
• Throw away any ice made with tap water, including ice sitting in the freezer’s ice dispenser.
• Run an empty cycle in coffee makers and dishwashers, or brew without coffee, to flush and clean them.
• If the flow at one tap is weak, take the aerator off and clear out any sediment caught in it.
• Clean or replace home water filters, checking the owner’s manual first, and run a water softener through a regeneration cycle.
• Businesses with commercial equipment are pointed to the state’s equipment startup checklist.

Flushing can stir up sediment in the pipes, the sheet says, so discolored water for a while is normal. If it does not clear after you have flushed both the hot and cold taps, the state says to call the town, at 970-533-7725.

Property managers of larger sites — offices, shopping areas, schools, homeowners’ association neighborhoods and mobile home communities — are asked to flush their distribution systems and either flush individual buildings themselves or tell their water users to flush their own taps.

Keep saving water until November 20

The advisory is off, but the town is not asking for normal consumption yet.

“Please continue to conserve water by avoiding outdoor watering, washing of vehicles, etc. through Friday, November 20,” the notice says.

The town closed with thanks: “The Town of Mancos sincerely appreciates the patience, cooperation, and understanding of our residents and businesses throughout this unprecedented water emergency.”

How it got here

The Mancos River flooded through town on the night of Sunday, November 1 and into Monday, November 2. Sediment in the river cut how much water the town’s treatment plant could make, and by Thursday, November 5, the town warned it could run out of treated water.

On Friday, November 6, the state required a boil and bottle water advisory for the whole town system. The town’s explanation then: “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.”

Getting out of it took the rest of the week. The town had to make enough water to flush its own mains the way the state requires, bring chlorine levels in both storage tanks up to what the state asked for, take bacteriological samples from around the system and both tanks, and wait for the laboratory and then for the state.

On Thursday, November 12, the town said it had sent that set of samples to the lab and expected results by close of business Friday. It would not predict the outcome: “The boil water advisory remains in place until further notice,” it said then. The results came back, and the state cleared the system the same afternoon.

Mancos Rural Water is still on a boil order

This does not cover everyone around Mancos. Mancos Rural Water Company, which serves customers outside the town limits, runs a separate system and is under its own boil order.

In its latest update, posted at 8:59 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, the company said it had found a mainline break on Road J and that repair work was due to start Friday morning. The main shutoff valve would be left partly open so customers away from the leak keep their water, it said, and people in the affected area “may experience temporary water outages or reduced water pressure while repairs are underway.”

Brown or discolored water is “not unexpected while repairs are being made and the system is being repressurized following multiple mainline breaks,” the company said.

And: “The boil water order remains in effect for the entire system until further notice. Customers should continue to boil water used for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, and food preparation.”

That was still the newest notice on the company’s website on Friday evening. Anyone on the rural system who is not getting its emergency alerts is asked to call the office so it can update their contact details.

A water station at Mancos Brewing Company still has potable drinking water and raw water. Anyone who knows an elderly or disabled neighbor who needs help getting water, or help with storm cleanup, is asked to contact Mancos Valley Resources.

Who to ask about work on the river

Separately, the town published a contact on Friday afternoon for people with questions about rebuilding along the Mancos River, saying it came up repeatedly at the November 10 community meeting.

For questions about a Section 404 permit or flood recovery along the river, the town’s notice says to contact Kerriane Zdimal of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at kerri.l.zdimal@usace.army.mil or 970-259-1604, extension 1. The notice also lists a cell number, but the digits as published do not make up a valid phone number, so the Current has left it out.

Update, November 14, 2026: Mancos Rural Water posted a new service update on its website at 8:08 p.m. Friday, November 13. It says the boil water order “remains in effect for the entire system until further notice” and asks customers to keep boiling water used for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and food preparation. The company has published no all-clear. The water station at Mancos Brewing Company remains open.

Sources: Town of Mancos, “Public Service Announcement - BOIL WATER ADVISORY HAS BEEN LIFTED - Nov 13 at 2:45 P.M.” and “Public Service Announcement - Army Corps of Engineers,” both posted on mancoscolorado.com on November 13, 2026, with the attached Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sheet “Drinking water - Questions and actions after a boil advisory”; Montezuma County’s Facebook page, November 13, 2026; Mancos Rural Water Company, “Water Service Update 11/12/2026, 8:59 pm” and “Water Service Update 11/13/2026, 8:08 pm” (mancosruralwater.com), read November 13 and 14, 2026