Thanks to John for this report:
I live on SW Orchard St and 39th. Lots of brown water coming out of my faucets. I’ve reported it to SPU, who received numerous other reports. The usual suspect, Seattle Fire Dept. doing testing, had not reported anything.
Reminder that if discolored water happens at your home or business, 206-386-1800 is the Seattle Public Utilities number to call.
We live at about 4100 and Orchard and suddenly are experiencing the same thing.this happened a few weeks ago out of the blue just like this and also cleared up.I didn’t find any info on the SPU site, but to prevent people from calling plumbers when they are doing something, they should post some sort of information.thanks John, for the heads up!
Brown water in Belvidere neighborhood as well. Seattle water department says it could take 3 – 8 hours to clear.
We live near Thriftway and had the same thing. Absolutely no warning this was going to happen, and the only reason we knew the water was dirty was from running the shower. We almost drank that dirty water.
Same here at 40th and SW Myrtle. I was in the middle of doing laundry when I realized! It really would be nice if advance warning could go out.
Yup same here for us by Hiawatha. Also called the Seattle Public Utilities and they said that the Seattle FD was doing hydrant testing and that it should go back to normal in a few hours.
I wonder if this is related to the giant spray of water that I saw at a construction site across Harbor Ave from ActiveSpace this morning.Water was spraying about 50 feet straight up.It looked like someone made a mistake with their giant Tonka like equipment.
I’ve lived in many cities over the years from small Allentown Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia to San Francisco and I’ve never had so many issues with discoloration in my water. It’s seriously almost every other month since I moved to West Seattle in 2021, never had this problem over in Capital Hill.
Brown, murky water here on Gatewood Hill— this is the second time in a few weeks for us. Called SPU, was on hold for 6 minutes then the phone just rang endlessly with no answer. Some guidance from the city would be helpful.
Still discolored at 5:30pm, just southeast of McDonalds in Morgan Junction. Water Department said to run my water to help clear the pipes. How long do I do that? Did it for a bit. Didn’t seem to help.
Still getting brown water over here, glad to hear it’s just sediment and nothing harmful!
My inquiry with SPU’s media team has gone unacknowledged … will renew it in the morning. Meantime, new brown water incidences, keep calling 206-386-1800…
I saw firemen opening fire hydrants along California Ave. near Thriftway. Perhaps this causes sediment that creates the temporary brown water.
FYI. Until this year the SFD did not flow hydrants during testing. This year by the direction of SPU the SFD is now flowing hydrants during annual testing. The new procedure is to flow until the water runs clear.
You can cycle the internal open/shut mechanism of a hydrant without flowing water by leaving the caps in place. Although allowing flow does stir harmless sediment and bring subsequent water complaints the hydrants need periodic cycling for maintenance, testing and life safety functionality.
Anyone checking back – we finally got a city response today, added to the newest brown-water story:
https://westseattleblog.com/2023/05/south-admiral-brown-water/
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