AUSTIN (NewsNation Now) — The entire city of Austin is under a boil water notice, with Austin Water representatives estimating that it will continue to be in effect for a few days with residents being asked to conserve water, according to NewsNation local affiliate KXAN.

A water treatment plant in Austin was out of service due to an “internal treatment process issue that resulted in high turbidity within the plant,” KXAN reported.

Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros said in a news conference Sunday evening that the issue at the Ullrich Plant stems from a mistake made by operational staff and was not connected to the winter storm that swept through Central Texas last week.

“It’s incredibly disappointing,” he said to a group of reporters.

“It’s becoming clear that this was errors from our operating staff,” he added. “Oversights in how they attended the process of treating water.”

Meszaros did not clarify if the staff responsible for the error would face repercussions.

“We’ll be working through all of that and all actions are on the table,” Meszaros said. “We’ll be investigating this more and documenting and taking whatever steps that we need to take.”

Under boil notices, people are told to use bottled water or boil tap water to drink and to prepare food, When boiling water, people should let it bubble vigorously for two minutes before letting it cool.

In many cases, unboiled tap water can be used to wash hands, bathe and shower, provided it is not swallowed. But only boiled water should be used when brushing teeth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Students and staff at Austin Independent School District have been asked to bring their own bottled and cooled, boiled water to school Monday. Classes will still start as scheduled, the school district said.

“We’re all going to be very safe as long as we use bottled or boiled water,” Austin ISD said on its website.

This is Austin Water’s first boil water notice since the February 2021 winter storm, when there was one that lasted nearly a week.

To lift the notice, officials said, the Ulrich Water Treatment Plant needs to come back online and operate under normal plant treatment levels. Water sampling results have to reveal “no water quality issues,” and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has to authorize Austin water to end the boil notice.