(WSB photo, Sunday morning)

After more brown water this weekend – including at WSB HQ – blamed on hydrant testing, which stirs up “sediment” (mostly rust) in the lines, we checked with SFD to see if they had any stats on the number of hydrants tested, and if they could recap the policy. Here’s the reply we received from SFD spokesperson Kristin Hanson:

Per our department policy, hydrants are not inspected when temperatures are below 35 degrees to comply with cold weather procedures, so many stations likely saw a “bright” opportunity with the sunshine this weekend to get started. We inspect all hydrants on an annual basis, typically between the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hydrant inspections within neighborhoods is dependent on when the fire station is able to work it into their schedule (with call volume, scheduled training, etc.).

We do keep an internal dashboard for hydrants that tracks the completed hydrant inspections for each fire station district. At this time it isn’t available to the public, and is not updated in real-time so it wouldn’t be of use to alert residents in advance to inspections in their neighborhood. To that point, you mentioned that you saw Engine 37 testing hydrants yesterday; however, that has not been updated in the dashboard. For 2024, it appears the majority of our stations have yet to begin (or not yet recorded) hydrant inspections. We do however, have crews contact the SPU Hydrant Inspection Messaging Line prior to flowing water into the barrel of a City-owned hydrant for non-emergency purposes, including conducting annual hydrant inspections, drilling, refilling the booster tank, or flow testing for the Fire Prevention Division.

Hydrant testing isn’t the only potential cause of brown water, though, so even if you think that’s the cause, please notify Seattle Public Utilities’ hotline – 206-386-1800 – it may be first word of a line break or other problem.