ALDEN – Governor Joshua Adamson has issued an emergency Executive Order directing all Alden County residents to not drink water from their taps, showers or sinks due to the potential contamination of lead, mirroring what took place in 2024 with the State’s water supply.

Governor Adamson said that the water issue should be short lived, but more testing will be conducted, and residents are being advised to not drink or use water from their taps, sinks or bathroom showers as it could contain lead for the next 48 hours. Minutes later the Governor issued an executive order allowing Alden County’s Water Board to shut all water lines off until testing is complete across the county.

The Governor’s office posted the following message to the Governor’s website early this afternoon as officials continued to work on testing all water supply facilities across the county.

“Governor Joshua Adamson has issued an Emergency Order directing the Mesa Water Board to cut off water to Alden residents for the next 48 hours due to the potential for another lead-filled water supply that was a cause for concern back in 2024. Further, health officials say this should not spread into a full scale water crisis as seen in 2024. Several cracks and flaking of rust was found in several of Alden’s water supply and filtration plants,” the statement said. “We are continuing to monitor the issue and we will keep residents up to date on the latest information. We advise residents to not to drink any water from taps, showers or sinks for at least 48 hours. We will provide safety status at waterstatus.stateofmesa.org.

See the executive orders page for continued guidance and direction from State officials and the Governor’s office.”

The State says they don’t “believe this will turn into a 2024 situation,” and said that this water issue should be resolved quickly. State leaders are calling for accountability on how a water issue is now conveniently occurring before an election. Republicans called the statement “unwarranted.”

In August of 2024, Mesa experienced contamination of lead in all 15 counties as the counties worked to fix to aging lead piping that carries water to millions of Mesians across the state. Within 3 months, the crisis ended, however 12 people were killed after blood-lead levels reached fatal.

“We do not believe this to be a statewide problem as all counties were directed to test their water for lead levels with 14 counties reporting no issues but did confirm they would continue to monitor water-lead levels,” said Mesa Health Director Anggie Wrangler. “Alden County seems to be the only county effected at this time and we will continue to test the water hourly. We ask Alden residents use bottled water from the store to cook with and bath in.”

Federal officials say they are prepared to deploy if such water issue spreads Statewide with President Laylin vowing to “provide any resources to Governor Adamson that are necessary.” President Laylin did confirm to reporters that he is closely monitoring and as of now, “is not concerned.”