Customers have made inquires regarding the rusty color in their water. There is no reason to be concerned using the water for consumption.
Three things have caused the discoloration of the water.
First, the Cave Run Corp of Engineers are pulling water from the bottom of the Cave Run Lake. Normally, at this time of the year, the temperature of the water has changed to cooler temperatures and the Corp of Engineers would pull from the middle to the top of the lake. We spoke with Mark Phillips out of the Corps main office in Louisville and he said with the unseasonal warmer temperature we have been having, this has caused them to pull water from the bottom of the lake. They are trying to preserve a trout population to satisfy the department of Fish and Wildlife. We have been successfully treating this very dirty and full of iron water. All of our water tests have been in total compliance. The additional treatment has been very costly. This additional treatment has also “weakened” the inner coating on the waterlines. We treat the water with chemicals that will build an inner coating in our water lines to prevent rusting and iron from getting into the water. The Corp is now pulling part of the water from the middle of the lake blending with the water being pulled from the bottom of the lake. This has been a big help. The influent water to our plant started clearing up Tuesday night.
Second, Saturday morning there was a house fire. When the firefighters were putting the fire out, they opened three water hydrants full blast causing the “weakened” inner coating or our water lines to be stripped. We totally understand why they had to do that. They did a wonderful job fighting the fire. The iron from these pipes bleed into our water system causing the discoloration throughout our whole system. It doesn’t take a lot of iron to cause the discoloration.
Third, we were doing a tie-in to the new Center of Health Education and Research Facility at St. Claire late last week. This happened prior to customers noticing iron in the lines but may have caused air to get trapped in the lines which tend to give the water a milky look.
The water is safe to drink and use. We took additional tests during these events and all test results are good. By pulling off the bottom of the lake you may also detect a less desirable taste and/or odor with your water. If you chill the water in the refrigerator before consuming it may help improve the odor and the taste.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused for customers. This is a problem that was beyond our control and we want to thank all of our customers for their patience.