Neighborhood alert: Water woes

Beth asked that this be passed along so others in her area would know:

The water for a block or so (it’s at our home at 40th & Hinds [map]) is brown. Apparently it is rust in the water & in response to an emergency call today that they had at 39th & Hanford. The lady at the city of Seattle Water dept said that it should go away within a few hours but she recommended not drinking the water with the high amount of rust in it. We thought we had a major plumbing issue & imagine everyone in the neighborhood is concerned about that as well.

Here’s the official city information on what causes water discoloration and what you should do if it happens at your home.

9 Replies to "Neighborhood alert: Water woes"

  • Diane February 18, 2010 (8:20 pm)

    well I’m at 37th and Hinds, so ran to check water; fine
    ~
    this happened few times at my last house down below junction, whenever city would work on plumbing under streets; it would always creep me out to realize what is sitting down in our water pipes

  • SLS February 18, 2010 (9:29 pm)

    I’m at 40th and Hanford, and was looking forward to a nice hot bath tonight, but not really into the swamp water effect, so no go. I’m running cold water now to try to flush the gunk out a bit. Ugh.

  • SLS February 18, 2010 (9:36 pm)

    I also just turned off my ice maker in the freezer so that I don’t wind up with a bunch of icky ice cubes. Fun!

  • robwestseattle February 19, 2010 (2:37 pm)

    That [map] link is broken. “target” should be “href”

  • SLS February 19, 2010 (5:34 pm)

    Water is still discolored, but slowly getting better. I called SPU today and they said they will be working on the water line again on Tuesday, so get ready for round two. She said that they should flush the line a bit when they are done, which should help speed up the process of clearing the water, but you may want to get some bottled water to have on hand. I’m headed to friends this evening to shower, as it’s still not clear enough for me to bathe in.

  • Chris February 19, 2010 (6:40 pm)

    My wife and I gave SPU a call this morning (about 8am) when I noticed water bubbling up from the street and planting strip just south of the 38th and Stevens intersection. I wonder if this caused the issues all the way up on Hinds?

  • sgs February 19, 2010 (10:40 pm)

    Not related, but for the past few weeks I’ve noticed considerable more chlorine smell in the tap water. Almost gags me. Anyone know if something changed?

  • SLS February 21, 2010 (2:28 pm)

    FYI that crews are back today due to reports of bad water along 40th Ave SW, so they are flushing the hydrant at the corner of SW Hanford Street and 40th Ave SW. You may need to run your cold water to flush your own lines once they are done. They started at about 1:30 and are still running the water. Remember to turn off the water supply to your fridge/freezer if you can, or at the very least don’t use it until the water clears. Same with the hot water, so as to avoid pulling gunky water into your tank. Fun!

  • SLS February 21, 2010 (4:21 pm)

    Hydrant flush wrapped up by about 3:00 today and those of us in the area are just running cold water at home to flush our own lines, and it’s cleared up for some people, but not yet fully at my house. Looking forward to having this wrapped up soon. The SPU crew today said that the city used to flush hydrants in “end zones” about once a year, but that this isn’t a regular practice anymore. After seeing what came out of the pipes the last few days, and out of that hydrant today, perhaps they should resume that practice.

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