Councillor Dillon Questions Messaging, Daytime Hydrant Flushing

One member of Saline City Council wants to consider changing the hydrant flushing program and to have the city provide clearer information about it after hearing from upset residents.

Last weekend's hydrant flushing program on the north side of town stirred up sediments and created brown and rusty water in neighborhoods throughout town. In the Saline Posts social media group, several people complained about the water and one resident complained the water ruined a load of laundry.

"There were some, I'm not going to mince words, very upset people in the community. I think we need to do a better explanations of what's happening," Councillor Janet Dillon said.

There were two issues, Dillon brought to light. Before the flushing began, the city distributed a graphic on its social media page showing a map of when and where hydrant flashing would take place, as flushing is known to stir sediments and tint the water. Dillon said people assumed the discolored water would be limited to specified areas on the weekends identified in the graphic, Dillon said.

"Well, it was impacting other areas that were not in the area in which the flushing was happening," Dillon said. "So we're hoping the city will put out revised information."

Dillon also noted that these rounds of flushing are happening during the day. In the past, flushing took place overnight.

"That was not perceived well by the community," Dillon said. "I think the city is going to need to look at other means of doing this and changing the timing of it. That's a conversation I'm looking forward to having."

The areas flushed so far were on the north section of town, coming as far south as Bennett Street. This weekend, the city plans to flush the hydrants in the downtown area and city core.

City Manager Colleen O'Toole, the city closes water valves in order to create the flow and pressure needed in the system to isolate debris that can be flushed.

"There are a lot of controlling mechanisms in the water distribution system that we're trying to get a control on," O'Toole said.

In order to do this, the city has gone to what O'Toole called a system of "48-hour intensive  segments of flushing."

"This allows staff to be a little more aggressive about going after where that discoloration may be located," O'Toole said. "Our intent is this will be a temporary discomfort so that we're not in a situation like last fall or last summer where after  the prolonged period of high usage, residents throughout the experience experienced discoloration."

O'Toole said the city staff deemed the weekend flush incredibly successful.

Despite what Dillon said about residents around the city experiencing discoloration outside the area the city was flushing, Mayor Brian Marl and O'Toole advised residents a course of action that seemed to disregard her concern.

"It's logical for me to suggest that if you live in the geographic region in which hydrants are being flushed and you see crews out and about in your neighborhood, that it would be an advantageous time to doing a load of laundry or using excessive, excessive amounts of water to prevent cloudy water from ruining clothes or filling a bathtub," Marl said. "Is that that perspective correct?"

"Absolutely," O'Toole said.

She said if crews are flushing hydrants in the area, people should be patient as they work down the line.

Dillon persisted with her message.

"Although they may not be present in your area, there may still be ramifications. They were in the north quadrant where as I live on the west side of town and we were greatly impacted. So I think there's an opportunity here to change our messaging," Dillon said.

She reiterated that she would also like to consider moving from weekend daytime flushing and returning to overnight flushing.

"I think (in the day on the weekend) is when people are home and they are doing laundry and other activities," Dillon said. "Early on in my tenure, it was always overnight. So  maybe there's an opportunity to go back to that so it's not so disruptive to people in the middle of the day on the weekend."

O'Toole said it would be hard to convince staff to go back to overnight flushing if the weekend flushing proves "overwhelmingly successful." She defined that as having fewer complaints in the long term.

O'Toole said residents in the city core should be affected by this weekend's hydrant flushing but noted that all residents should assume they may experience discolored water this weekend.

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