As the coronavirus (COVID-19) sweeps the United States and is now in Rhode Island, you’ve likely taken steps to protect yourself and your family. Here at the Bristol County Water Authority we know you depend on us to provide vital drinking water services, so we’ve taken steps to protect our staff, their families, and our community to ensure the continued delivery of the critical services we provide.
We want to assure you that your water is safe to drink. The United States has strong regulations governing public water. Our water is filtered and treated with chlorine that effectively inactivates viruses and kills pathogens throughout the system. For more information, please visit https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/coronavirus-and-drinking-water-and-wastewater#tapwater .
Our job is to protect the public health through the continued supply of safe, high quality drinking water. We are following the recommendations of health authorities including both the state Department of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure the well-being of our employees and adequate staffing levels to maintain critical services.
Therefore, as of Tuesday, March 17th, our offices will be closed to the public. However, our staff will be here to help via phone and we have a payment slot by the building entrance. Please call 401-245-2022 to request assistance with billing or your water service.
In addition, all non-essential public contact, such as meter replacements, has been cancelled until further notice.
Because disinfection and sanitation are critical to combat the spread of the virus, we have suspended water disconnections at this time.
Additional protections implemented include increasing sanitation and disinfection of workspaces, cancelling non-essential meetings, and promoting common sense personal hygiene practices. Systems and procedures have been developed to monitor employee illness and provide work-from-home options as reasonable and feasible.
We will take appropriate steps to keep our workforce healthy and able to provide the safe drinking water you depend on. We are closely following developments and will respond swiftly during this rapidly evolving event. Together, we can help minimize the impacts and extent of the COVID-19 outbreak.