Local News: Discolored Water Triggers Calls; record usage to blame (09/05/23)

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The thirsty houseplant from the Gazettes got an extra dose of iron and manganese on Monday morning when the tap water from our faucet produced brownish-colored water. According to a Google search, iron and manganese are essential nutrients for the healthy growth and development of indoor plants. They are also essential nutrients for human health.

Shary Skiles/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. Many residents had a nasty surprise when they turned on their water taps on Monday morning. And some people may have been wrongly accused of not flushing the toilet after doing their business. Both events provided abundant fodder on social media.

Around 10 a.m. Monday morning, the town of McCook had received about 20 complaints from residents who had brownish-colored water coming from their faucets. The city’s director of utilities, Pat Fawver, took immediate action to resolve the issue.

His first step was to contact the city’s sewage treatment plant and check usage levels. He said an unusually high level of usage occurred at some point on Sunday evening or early Monday morning. The flow rate was approximately 4,000+ gallons per minute over an hour duration. That’s the most we’ve pumped per minute to date, Fawver told the Gazette. Fawver suspects that many residents, as well as schools and the city, were all watering the lawns at the same time.

He and his staff flushed the pipes in the affected neighborhoods and within hours the water was clear again. Fawver said he took water samples to American Agriculture Lab for testing and results are expected later this afternoon. But his hunch is that the discoloration will turn out to be iron and manganese, and although it is unappetizing, it is not bacterial in nature and safe to drink. He was so confident in his intuition that he told the Gazette he had a drink of it. It really wasn’t bad, said Fawver. Fawver said it also tests for residual chlorine in the water. Chlorine acts as a disinfectant to kill or inactivate harmful microorganisms.

The affected areas appeared to be on the west side of town around West 4th and 5th Streets, although the West First Street Gazette also experienced discolored water. Unfortunately, it’s a bit normal for McCook, but he [Mondays discoloration] affected addresses that have never seen it before, Fawver said.

The city has 53 miles of trunk lines connected to approximately 3,600 service connections. Fawver started working on a flushing program. He thinks normal maintenance would require flushing every year, but it hadn’t been done for several years prior to his leadership of the department. Flushing has many benefits, including removing sediment and debris from pipes and identifying infrastructure issues.

Last year, the city issued warnings on June 2 about brownish-red water appearing in toilets and faucets due to high water demand. At that time, over three million gallons of water were pumped over Memorial Day weekend. Residents were warned to avoid using hot water while discoloration was present to avoid pulling water through water heaters. They were also told that the minerals in the discolored water could stain clothes. Fawver told the Gazette that 3.1 million gallons were pumped Monday.

Fawver encourages residents to call the water department at 308-345-2022 ext. 222 when new cases of discoloration occur.

We can flush the lines and possibly get your water back to normal faster when we know there is a problem.

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