Brown water update: Mayor says it should pass, no danger

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Three times over 90 days, many Glens Falls residents have experienced alarmingly brown water.

“My water was running a color, I guess you could describe it as ‘Coca Cola brown,’” Crandall Street resident Mike Metzger told the Sept. 26 Common Council meeting.

Anxious or angry residents posted pictures on Facebook of bathtubs filled with rust-brown water.

Glens Falls Water and Sewer Superintendent Bill Norton tells The Chronicle, that on July 25 and 27, and again on September 16, the system experienced mysterious “spikes” in flow they attibute to an unidentified large commercial user.

It’s very specific: The department measured increases of water flow from 1,300 to 2,800 gallons per minute (GPMs, in department lingo), at 1 and 2 p.m. on September 16, each lasting for 6 minutes.

Mr. Norton said they hope to figure out the user by examining the upcoming quarterly billing reports, but the reports don’t show day-by-day use so it will take “some detective work.”

‘Water hammer’

“It’s not that we don’t want them to use the water,” Mr. Norton said.

But at that volume, so suddenly, it causes problems, especially where the pipes are narrower. And then when they use that much and shut it off quickly, it creates a backflow, called a “water hammer,” that can cause sediment settled in the pipes to be dislodged.

“If it was a break in the pipe, you would have seen the increased flow just keep going,” he said. “My ear is like a cauliflower,” Mr. Norton told the Water and Sewer Commission’s monthly meeting on Monday. “The phone has not been away from my ear for a week.”

Mr. Norton later told The Chronicle they’d heard from approximately 50 residents about the July incidents, and “more like 100” in September, with the city-wide hydrant flushing added to the issue.

“My phone hasn’t run the last few days,” he said on Tuesday, indicating the situation has quieted.

Mr. Norton said in Monday’s meeting, the trouble seems to go “house by house,” possibly depending on where each residence’s system taps into the water main, literally, “top, bottom or sides.”

He said the twice-yearly hydrant flushing program is raising more sediment in the pipes than usual.

“It’s taking longer to flush the hydrants to remove the sediment,” he said. “Where we have one hydrant that we know usually takes 45 minutes to an hour, it’s maybe an hour and a half, so the process is taking longer.”

He said, in each area of the City, “It seems there is one hydrant has a lot and once you do that one, the rest run clear.”

Mr. Norton suggested another cause for the amount of sediment in the pipes may be disturbances caused by increased paving and sidewalk projects this summer, and when water was pulled from hydrants to be used by roller machines during paving, for example.

That sediment — of iron and magnesium — is “harmless,” said Mayor Bill Collins, who chairs the Water and Sewer Commission. “You wouldn’t want to drink it when it’s suspended like that,” but “it’s not contaminated in any way.”

He said the city asks residents experiencing discolored water to run faucets and outside spigots until the water clears. “If it’s more than 10 or 15 minutes, let us know,” the mayor said.

Mr. Norton said the Department of Health, which has been working with the City on these issues, said Glens Falls had similar issues in the 90s and 80s, “so it’s not unheard of.”

‘Should not raise bills,’ laundry fix

Mayor Collins said the situation is typically short lived He asked residents to “be patient.”

Regarding water bills, he said “most” residents running their taps to clear the sediment are on the minimum payment level, “so it shouldn’t affect your bill”

“If it does, they could appeal,” the Mayor said, beginning by filing in writing through the City Clerk’s office.

The Water and Sewer Department offers free packets of rust and iron stain remover for anyone whose laundry has been discolored by the sediment.

GF: ‘We caught a break,’ so to speak; sewer issue solved

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: What looked potentially to be “a major headache” of a sewer break on Glen Street downtown was easily fixed, Water and Sewer Superintendent Bill Norton tells The Chronicle.

“We caught a large break there, so to speak,” Mr. Norton said, laughing at his own pun.

A sewer back-up started on Thursday, Sept. 14, at 193 Glen, home of Mean Max craft brewery. The department believed it was caused by a broken pipe, Mr. Norton said, as happened in 2018, flooding the basement of the Wood Theater with sewage. It paused Adirondack Theatre Festival’s season.

IBS Septic of Queensbury attempted to send its cameras through the pipes on Friday but initially couldn’t get far enough in to find the issue.

So the City expected to begin on Monday a complicated project involving separate stormwater drains and gas lines.

Monday morning, though, Mr. Norton said IBS attempted “one more time” to get its cameras deeper into the pipe, beginning by using hoses to suck out “a lot of water” filled with what he described as “light rocks” and “gritty material.”

“We went back 70 feet to the main pipe. It was all clear of debris after that and there was no break. That was three weeks ago, and there have been no issues since.”

“That was great news on our behalf.”

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