Water Contamination Leaves Mountain View Residents Without Safe Tap Water

About 65 Mountain View households are entering their fifth day without safe drinking water, with no clear end in sight.

On April 24, a contractor working on a water main project near Bonita Avenue and Cuesta Drive accidentally pumped cement slurry into an old pipe being abandoned that was still connected to the system. The slurry hit a closed valve, contaminating water supply in parts of Cuesta Drive, Leona Lane, Montalto Drive, Drucilla Drive and Carla Court.

Mike Vasquez, the city’s utilities services manager, said crews immediately isolated the affected area once the contamination was discovered. The State Water Resources Control Board stepped in as the regulatory authority overseeing the cleanup, and tests soon revealed bacteria in the water supply — two of 10 samples came back positive for coliform, an indicator of potential biological growth.

Additional testing is underway as crews continue flushing the system and monitoring water quality.

“We are not restoring service to this area until the water has been proven to be safe and ready for the residents,” Vasquez said.

Residents received notices late the afternoon of April 24, warning them not to use tap water for drinking, cooking, laundry, hand-washing, dishwashing or bathing. Within hours, city crews shut off service entirely, and residents could not flush toilets for the first two days.

Toilet flushing was restored over the weekend, but the do-not-drink order remains in effect and is not expected to be lifted until at least the middle or end of the week, if not later. Vasquez said it is possible the outage could extend beyond Friday.

Lenka Wright, the city’s chief communications officer, said communication with residents has been a priority from the start.

“We understand how challenging this has been for the residents, and we really appreciate how resilient they have been,” Wright said. “It’s been very important for us to address the residents’ needs and go door to door to hear exactly from them what concerns they may have.”

The city has been delivering bottled water and hand sanitizer, offering free hotel stays at four partner hotels, providing shower access at the city pool and stationing fire crews for daily welfare checks. Wright noted that the city is reviewing whether to reduce water utility bills for affected households.

Patrick Westgate, who has rented his home on Cuesta Drive for nearly a year, said the city’s communication has been thorough: multiple notices taped to front doors, welfare checks from fire and water crews, and a website refreshed with regular updates. But the shifting timeline has worn on him.

“We have no idea what to expect now,” Westgate said. “Friday night, they said it should be back on by Saturday. Now it’s ‘plan on not having it for the week.’ That’s the part that’s hard.”

Westgate said he has been showering at a nearby YMCA, eating takeout and rinsing his hands with bottled water. He said the experience reminded him of the early days of COVID — the city taking maximum precautions to protect its most vulnerable residents, even if the risk to healthier people was lower.

Virginia Steiner, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2009, is managing the outage while hosting a houseguest and caring for a dog for a few weeks. She said the disruption has upended her daily routine in ways she didn’t anticipate, from canceled appointments to a pile of laundry she has no way to wash.

“You don’t realize how often you turn on the tap,” Steiner said. “We don’t realize how lucky we are to have running water, safe running water.”

Despite everything, Steiner said she has found a reason to stay positive.

“The silver lining is that I feel our water is going to be the safest water to drink, because the state is involved, and the city is involved, and they’re all working hard to clear those tests,” she said.

City crews collected another round of samples Monday and sent them to a laboratory in Livermore, where results take about a day to return.

Once samples come back clean, residents will also be required to flush their own household plumbing. They must run every faucet, showerhead and outdoor spigot in a specific sequence before the water inside their homes is considered safe to use.

Resident of the neighborhood, Vincent Brown, described the past several days as surreal.

“You get so used to using water to do your everyday activities, whether it’s washing the clothes, doing the dishes, drinking, flushing the toilet,” Brown said. “It’s like camping indoors. It’s kind of funny.”