UPDATE: Brown water near Lowman Beach, in Morgan Junction

| Utilities | West Seattle news

11:51 AM: Sent by Trileigh:

I just tried to refill a bottle, and our water is running brown and cloudy. Maybe with the fresh rain a pipe is leaking somewhere? Above Lowman in the Pelly Place neighborhood.

Nothing on the Seattle Public Utilities water-outage map, so either it’s hydrant testing again or an as-yet-unaddressed problem .. always notify SPU about brown water (which is caused by unusual line activity stirring up “sediment,” mostly rust) at 206-386-1800.

11:57 AM: Just as we published that report, we got a text from someone in the Morgan Junction area saying they’re seeing it too and SPU says it’s hydrant testing.

Alki DeadEnder August 5, 2023 (12:44 pm)

The real issue is/was, Seattle saving money and not buying the best valves for turning off hydrants. Ergo, every time they turn one, some particulate cloud forms, and everything downstream from the test gets cloudy water for a while. It won’t hurt you, even though it makes for funny colored ice cubes.At least it isn’t harmful.

Question Authority August 5, 2023 (3:12 pm)

This reoccurring and minor issue has nothing to do with valve or infrastructure quality, it’s nothing more than a short lived inconvenience. This water that your actually lucky to enjoy, comes from mountain watersheds which being mountainous have lots of dirt and natural organic matter attached. Even with opportunities to settle out upstream this harmless particulate inevitably settles in pipes and is stirred up during high flow events. Pipe breakage is a rare cause, hydrant testing is to insure functionality and to insure public safety so please everyone just settle down and be grateful for fresh water on demand, and let the particulates settle down as well.

WSeattleRes August 5, 2023 (9:56 pm)

I’ve lived in various parts of the city within the last decade & never seen so many instances of brown water as reported frequently in W Seattle area of the city! Very interesting. I assume the city tests hydrants throughout Seattle yet never remember having brown water incidents until moving to W Seattle. Same goes for the frequent power outages as well. Seems very temperamental in W Seattle overall for frequent brown water incidents & very frequent power outage incidents as well .

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