  We present here a mid-infrared imaging survey of 26 sites of water maser
emission. Observations were obtained at the InfraRed Telescope Facility 3-m
telescope with the University of Florida mid-infrared imager/spectrometer
OSCIR, and the JPL mid-infrared camera MIRLIN. The main purpose of the survey
was to explore the relationship between water masers and the massive star
formation process. It is generally believed that water masers predominantly
trace outflows and embedded massive stellar objects, but may also exist in
circumstellar disks around young stars. We investigate each of these
possibilities in light of our mid-infrared imaging. We find that mid-infrared
emission seems to be more closely associated with water and OH maser emission
than cm radio continuum emission from UC HII regions. We also find from the
sample of sources in our survey that, like groups of methanol masers, both
water and OH masers have a proclivity for grouping into linear or elongated
distributions. We conclude that the vast majority of linearly distributed
masers are not tracing circumstellar disks, but outflows and shocks instead.
