Saturday I was ringing my Parent's doorbell (I live in the duplex above their's) noticed a paper in their mailbox. (just delivered as I saw the man putting them in mailboxes across the street). It was a "Notification of Aqueduct Service Interruption", stating that they were going to cut the water supply "shortly" to conduct an emergency repair that this work would last all day long that arrangements should be made to have enough drinking water for the household while the water service is temporarily cut. It also stated not to be alarmed as following the repairs the water may be "colored"-to let the faucets run. Also they advised to not drink water from the faucet for 48hours then wrote to boil the water for one minute! And if one had any questions to contact the Engineering Dept. On weekdays. Ahem, this happened on Saturday so there was no one to ask any questions! Not only was I upset because I DID NOT receive a notice in my mailbox, but that the water was shut off right after delivering this paper, my Parents I were not able to be prepared for this situation, I.e. to fill up some bottles, basins etc. With emergency water. In my home, I have an under counter water filtration system (installed under the kitchen sink), with a CBR 210 water filter cartridge contained in a housing. I recently installed a new filter. I would like to know if my filter is now contaminated as a result of this - does anyone know? Should I be boiling the filtered water? Also, I am peeved that I did not get a notice in my mailbox- the man delivering the notices just put one in my Parent's mailbox! (not that I would have even known about it as we do not get mail on weekends so, I don't check the mailbox! But, it just so happened that I was outside the door at that particular moment... Not that it made a difference anyway! As we were without one drop of water for many many hours! Anyway, I have experienced some "Life Lessons"! This water service "interruption" made me feel very Grateful, for all that I have! We take for granted that we are so fortunate to be able to turn on the faucet at any time to have water... While millions of others in the world have no water at all! And also, I need to be "prepared" and always have some emergency bottled water in my house! (also, just wondering... Is this how other cities inform their citizens that the water is to be shut off, I.e. within 10 minutes! ) Thanks for any comments and replies to my question!

Your going to want to change the filter soon. The reason is there may have been a large amount of rust in the pipe (its common). So get it changed as soon as you can. Without formal testing there is no way to tell if or how much it may be contaminated. Better to be safe then sorry.

Many areas don't even let you know when there is an emergency water shuttoff for repairs. They were basically just trying to cover the behinds. Don't worry, it shouldn't be to big of a deal, just follow the instructions that you were lucky enough to run across, and don't use your reverse osmosis system unitll the 48 hours is up. As long as you don't run your filtration system, it won't get any bad water in it.

And you are correct about how spoiled we have become. Back in the day they used to get water from a crick or wherever they could get it, there was no such thing as being able to check water quality. Don't lose too much sleep over it. If you really are peeved, I suggest taking it up with the water department. You may get them to cover the cost of a new filter, maybe even pay for you to hire a plumber to install it. However, I wouldn't hold my breat, but if you keep a cool head, and talk to them reasonably, you might have a shot. Please let us know how things work out.