A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 53F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 53F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

The City of Plattsburgh is doing its best to solve a dirty water situation, but results have been hard to come by so far.

That’s not what residents want to hear, and hopefully the situation will improve soon. Otherwise, the city could have a public relations nightmare on their hands.

For the past month or so, city residents have been complaining about brown water coming out of their taps. The discolored water is not in every household, but enough to draw some serious attention.

To the city’s, and Environmental Services Manager Jonathan Ruff’s credit, they have been on top of the matter, testing and re-testing the system over and over again. But they remain pretty much puzzled as to what the cause of the discoloration is.

Notices from the city indicated that the discolored water was caused by sediment in the tanks. The tanks were flushed, which officials believed would solve the problem, but it persists.

Ruff stressed that the water is fine to use, and no bacterial issues have been found. He understands, however, if people do not feel comfortable using it.

The city has had a long history of featuring a solid water supply. In fact, they had so much water in the early 2000s that some councilors considered getting into the water business and selling it to other municipalities.

The city’s water system serves about 25,000 people, between residents and people attending and working at SUNY Plattsburgh.

Plattsburgh has long had a plentiful supply of water, using three upland gravity surface water sources: Mead Reservoir, West Brook Reservoir and the Saranac River.

The two reservoirs are located about five miles west of the city, near the intersection of Rand Hill Road and Route 374.

Water taken from the reservoirs is piped to the city’s water-filtration plant, located west of city limits on Route 3.

Water can also be withdrawn from the Saranac River off Kent Falls Road in Cadyville and piped into the West Brook Reservoir.

At the water-filtration plant, the water has chlorination, sedimentation, filtration and fluoridation treatments and is held in a ground storage tank until it is distributed to city users.

The city annually treats more than 700,000,000 gallons of water.

The daily average of water treated and sent into the distribution system is about 2,000,000 gallons per day.

The cost for a customer using about 6,000 gallons per year is about $350.

It is in the storage tanks that the problem is occurring, but the exact cause continues to escape officials. We’ve been told that the city is consulting with all of the experts at the state and national level they can find, and they hope to have an answer soon.

In a letter to city residents, Ruff explained that the city immediately increased the number of bacteria samples collected to make sure the water was adequately disinfected and safe to use. All tests were good. All tests are still good, Ruff said.

Scuba divers were even brought in to assess the situation in the tanks.

The city set out to flush the distribution system to get rid of the fine sediment that may be in the pipes. That was expected to take at least a couple weeks.

Unfortunately, flushing can rile the system up for a while, causing more discolored water, Ruff explained. There’s really no way to avoid this. However, the more flushing that occurs, the better the situation should get.

Ruff said that he and his staff feel terrible about the situation are are working diligently to fix the problem, find out the exact cause and see to it that it doesn’t happen again.

We certainly hope their efforts pay off soon because, as we’ve seen in recent years in cities across the country, dirty water is most definitely a red flag no one wants to deal with.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.

Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox.

First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.