Residents 9 Westchester County Communities are being advised to boil their water before drinking it or using it for food preparation as a precaution until further notice due to the high turbidity at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Catskill Aqueduct. 

People living in Briarcliff, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Elmsford, Grasslands Reservation, Hawthorne, Irvington, Valhalla and Thornwood are all affected.

On Friday, the State DEC announced it will cease dumping turbid water into the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County and that it will begin three days of flushing, known as "clear water releases" to flush roughly 1.5 billion gallons through the system.

It's unclear whether the "clear water releases" or the recent snowstorms are resulting in turbid water in the Westchester communities, but officials are telling residents  to bring their tap water to a rolling boil for a minimum of one minute prior to drinking or using it for food preparation. The same goes for washing dishes by hand.

The advisory does not extend to bathing or to clothes washing or the use of a dishwasher.

Officials say the appearance of water may not be affected and that the boil water advisory is a precaution to protect from potential contamination caused by interference with the disinfection process due to high turbidity, or sedimentation  in the water.