Councillor Rice to Councillor Dillon: Don't Pick At City's Expert Staff on Water Flushing Program

Councillor Nicole Rice had a message for colleague Janet Dillon at Monday's Saline City Council meeting.

"The things that have been said toward you today about the processes and all the things you're trying," Rice said to DPW Director Larry Sirls after a few criticisms of the program offered by Dillon, "and us as the non-experts pick it apart, I don't find it appropriate."

The DPW had just undergone a month of intensive hydrant flushing - weekend by weekend, segment by segment. Workers flushed the system around the clock Saturday and for 16 hours on Sunday.  City residents were warned via social media they might experience discolored water during the process - especially if crews were flushing hydrants in their neighborhood.  But complaints about water pressure and brown water came from various parts of the city, regardless of where the DPW was working.

Dillon, who a couple of weeks ago questioned the move away from overnight flushing, once again talked about how the new flushing schedule did not suit the schedules of many residents.

"I've got to be honest with you, it was not a good sell for community members. So maybe doing an overnight (flushing) during the week... I get you're never going to make everyone happy, but there are people who work all week and use weekends to do laundry," Dillon told Sirls. "So maybe there's a way we can figure out a better system for less impact on people."

On social media, people complained of laundry stained by brown water. Dillon said she spoke with a dog groomer who lost all water service and went to Busch's to buy some in the middle of an appointment. Restaurants and businesses along Michigan Avenue reported a loss of water pressure Saturday.

In his report to the council, Sirls noted the city could work to minimize the water pressure issue in the future by loading up the water towers ahead of time and increasing and flushing to the Michigan Avenue corridor after normal business hours.

Hydrant flushing has been a routine maintenance exercise for the water system. It removes minerals that have accumulated the system. It generally happens twice a year but has been less frequent since 2022 due to water production issues. The city is waiting for the state approval to bring a recently drilled well online.

Sirls reported to council a new flushing program was necessary due to the state of the city's infrastructure. Sirls reported the plant is nearly 20 years old, which means the city will experience failures in electric and mechanical equipment.

In 2023, the city replaced the water system's green sand filters. During the process it was confirmed the filters had deteriorated to the point that large and heavy filter media were being pushed through the system. This made it more important to flush the system using high-velocity flushing.

"Deferred maintenance is not a positive thing. Those green sand filters should have been replaced many, many eons ago," Dillon said.

The days of weeknight overnight flushing required 16-hour days from DPW staff for nearly three weeks during a season that also required mowing, pothole patching and other seasonal work,

Sirls reported there were several benefits that came from the weekend flushing exercise.

• 40 straight hours of flushing was more effective than starting and stopping and caused fewer complaints compared to prior years, Sirls reported. Some of the spikes in complaints were directly related to multiple starts and stops associated with eight-hour shifts.
• Continuity allowed water to flush clear faster, cutting down the number of hours it took to complete the flush.
• There were zero lost manhours.
• The DPW coordinated its schedule with American Soy, the city's largest water customer.

Answering a question from Councillor Dean Girbach, Sirls said all but one valve was reported working during the program.

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