Test Results: Dirty Water OK

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by Melissa Bailey | Jul 9, 2010 12:51 pm

(3) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Environment

Contributed Photo The water authority tested the brown water that poured out of people’s taps this week and found nothing harmful, a spokeswoman said.

Regional Water Authority (RWA) spokeswoman Kate Powell announced the results Friday morning.

“The elements in the sediment were identified as copper, iron, manganese and zinc,” Powell said. “The results were what we expected to find.”

Powell said those elements are “not harmful.”

“They’re always in the water anyway” in lower concentrations, she said, “just you don’t visibly see them.”

The elements usually settle from the water and form sediment in the bottom of water mains, Powell said. The heat wave brought high demand for water, which stirred up the sediment and sent it into people’s homes, she explained.

Tap water periodically turns murky when people illegally open fire hydrants. The problem was especially bad this year because of a brutal heat wave, Powell said: Click here for a story explaining the dirty water phenomenon.

The water meets all the state and federal regulations, Powell said Friday.

The RWA tested the water after customers across New Haven and beyond complained of dark-colored sediment coming out of their faucets, and settling in their toilet bowls. Many people reported the problem Tuesday night, continuing into Wednesday. On Thursday, New Haveners began to report that their water was back to normal.

Powell said the number of brown water complaints peaked Wednesday morning, and has been falling since then.

“People are still experiencing discolored water in pockets,” Powell said, but for the most part, “it appears to be clearing up.”

She said unlike other water utilities, the RWA never had a water shortage during the heat wave. The problem was caused only by an increase in demand, which made the water flow faster. The brown water may continue in certain areas until demand falls, Powell said.

The rain that’s forecast for this weekend should help decrease demand, she predicted, because people won’t need to water their lawns.

“It will hopefully be enough to get flows back to normal,” she said.

Comments

posted by: Threefifths on July 9, 2010 6:11pm

Don’t fall for this.Read this and you be the judge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html

SDWIS Violation Report

REGIONAL WATER AUTHORITY
NEW HAVEN, CT 06511
203-401-6720

http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/sdw_report_v2.first_table?pws_id=CT0930011&state=CT&source;=&population=389300&sys_num=0

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/12/17/us/20091217WATER_index.html

You must check this video out.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/12/16/us/1247466144198/tainted-tap-water.html

posted by: amy on July 11, 2010 4:31pm

From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html:
“Indeed, some of the chemicals ... [in] ...water — like manganese, which has been associated with Parkinson’s disease — are essentially unregulated, and so the water system isn’t required to remove them, even when particles float in a glass”

posted by: The Whole Truth ? on July 12, 2010 10:23pm

Exactly the same metals I’d expect to find. The RWA should now publish the concentrations in parts per million in there tests and the EPA permitted concentrations. They never did this.

Why not. Why not. Why not.

THEY MUST BE HIDING SOMETHING.

I know they are poisoning us. All I want to know is how much. Will I die in a month, in a year, or in ten years.

WHY DOESNT THE MAYOR INVESTIGATE THIS.

WHY DOESNT BLUMENTHAL INVESTIGATE THIS.

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