Work continues to cause discoloring of water in Carson City

The annual process of flushing Carson City’s water mains continues this coming week with crews working in south-central Carson City.

City Water Operations Manager Rit Palmer said the flushing began a couple of weeks ago on the east side of town near Airport and Highway 50 and would continue this month until all the mains feeding water to homes and businesses are cleared of sediment.

He said there’s a lot more sediment in the mains this year than in times past.

“Because of the drought, we didn’t flush for the past three years,” he said. “Basically that turned around and bit us. We have more sediment build up this year.”

The result is more discolored — primarily brown — water that has caused numerous complaints from residents. He emphasized the discoloration isn’t harmful but advised residents to avoid washing light colored laundry if their water is discolored.

“We’ve got to flush every year regardless of the drought,” he said.

Palmer said the other issue causing discolored water is the fact it’s spring and water use is increasing dramatically as people restart their sprinkler systems. In addition, he pointed to the large number of construction projects under way in Carson City including replacement of the water main down the center of Carson Street.

“All these factors start moving the water around and that stirs the sediment up,” he said.

Palmer said city officials used to go door to door hanging tags on doorknobs to tell people they were flushing mains in their neighborhood but is now trying to use the “Code Red” telephone notification system. That, he said, saves a large number of man-hours, printing costs and other expenses.

The problem, he said, he’s the growing number of people who don’t have a landline, instead relying on a cellphone, which isn’t accessible using Code Red.

He urged those people to go to the city website carson.org and sign up for notifications by cell phone, text or email not only for the water main flushing schedule but other events that may affect them and their neighborhoods.

He said water system maintenance continues through the year and the city won’t get around to flushing some dead-end street areas until later this summer.

Further information is available from Carson City Public Works at 887-2355.