Brown water in Arbor Heights

| Arbor Heights | Utilities | West Seattle news

If your tap water looks like this right now …

… it’s hydrant testing again, according to what Garrett – who sent the photo – was told when he called Seattle Public Utilities. As we’ve been reporting recently, a procedural change in hydrant testing has led to more sediment disturbance in the lines than used to be the case. The sediment is mostly rust, and SPU says it’s not toxic, but certainly unpleasant to see – and definitely hold off on laundry until the water runs clear. Always report it to SPU – 206-386-1800.

waikikigirl May 27, 2023 (3:29 pm)

UCK that really looks bad! Makes you wonder if you really want to drink water again out of your tap!🤔

Question Authority May 27, 2023 (6:17 pm)

You drink a miniscule amount of rust and mountain water sediment each and every day and it hasn’t hurt you yet. It’s just stirred up now and given time to settle out it’ll be back to what you know as normal again. Having a functioning fire hydrant proven through testing should be worth a little murky, yet safe water.

WSCurmudgeon May 27, 2023 (5:25 pm)

My father, The NorthEndCurmudgeon, was a nationally known chemical engineer who specialized in water treatment for industrial and domestic (household consumption) purposes. His reaction to bottled water was that the industry was “one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American public.” Seattle has one of the safest municipal water systems on the planet. His view was that “the more human intervention in an industrial system, the greater chance of contamination from mistakes.” The bottling process is the source of many of the problems: plastic contamination, foreign matter getting into the bottles, failure of the seals, or the water aging beyond the safe storage period. As for “filtering,” he noted that a filter system must be maintained to work properly. Unless you know that the filters are properly cleaned and maintained, a dirty filter is often worse than none.