Office of the City Manager 1 assigned this issue to Transportation & Utilities 1

At my house, some days, it’s yellow. Other days, it’s clear. But, it’s defintely a repeated and ongoing issue over the last 2 months.

Thank you for reporting this issue. It is getting close to the time when we complete our city wide hydrant flushing and typically we see a pickup in water quality issues in late August thru September before the hydrant flushing. We will be flushing the system this month and after everything settles it should clear up the system. The discoloration is just naturally occurring iron and our water is tested on a regular basis and although not pleasant to look at, it is safe to drink. Hydrant flushing in your area is scheduled for October 25th. Afterwards you will want to open up your faucets and flush toilets to complete the flushing in your own waterlines. If you continue to have any discoloration or have any questions, please contact us at (269) 329-4422.

I do not feel they are ever going to fix this. Even with newly constructed roads the water lines are not built with loops in them and the people at the end of the lines are left to pay the price and receive no additional discount or help for the inconveniences.
We are at the end of a newly installed water main and we're always so blessed to be able to take tea baths for free! The city mayor started she was going to do something about it, but haven't seen any change.
We ended up having to invest in a larger whole house filter that's installed before (that is key) the water softener. The filter is rated to last 6 months and cost $30/each and we have to replace them every 2 - 3 months.
If you have a similar setup, the large sediment filter must go before the softener due to the fact a softener is only designed to remove rust that is not visible. An example being, clear water that leaves rust stains.
Our water is so bad that the hardness level on our softener has to be set to 35, when Portage recommends 19 (I believe). The only long term fix is a iron filtration plant being built.

M.R. My brother is a scientists and works in regulatory testing for a water bottle company. I’m going to see if he can test our water for us.

Jpuza55,

I like that idea! We’ve reported this issue on multiple occasions and a huge chunk of our neighborhood has commented that they have the same issue each time. It would be great to have someone actually test our water instead of the city continuing to say “You’re all fine, drink the water” without ever even coming out or looking into it further.

Jpuza55 - I do not doubt that the water is heavy with minerals, you can easily see that with all the calcium/lime and rust. Now as far as PFAS, PFOA, and PFOS levels - I am not sure about. But seeing how just seeing the amount of complains and most of them coming from people who are at the end of a water main or using an old water main - you would think the city would at least offer a discounted rate to the people that must deal with it constantly.

I have actually designed, programmed, and started up whole municipality utilities (water and wastewater) which at least gives me some extra insight to what goes on behind the scenes. Iron is naturally occurring and does build up inside the water mains. When they do hydrant flushing it causes a lot of turbulence and higher than usual flow with the intent to get rid of the build up. When they finish, homes will see rust. That is normal. The other reason it can happen is if they have any water hammering within the system. This usually only occurs when a supply pump is running and then shuts off unexpectedly or the pump controls are not programmed correctly to slowly stop the pump and allow the valve to shut under a low flow operation.

The people who constantly have issues (such as myself and many others) are the ones who are at the end of one of the water mains. For example, on Bacon Ave the water is fed from Westnedge and the pipe ends at Portage. Most of the people on Bacon do not have an issue because the rust is going right past them. But when the people at the end of the line use their water, there is no longer a forward flow of water and all of the sediments settle at the end of the line, thus are more likely to start "sucking" that yummy stuff up when they turn on their water. I believe people in that position, as I mentioned above, should be compensated, even if it's just a reduced water cost to help offset all of the extra stuff they have to buy to obtain clean water - that they are paying for to begin with.

The only way to fix the issue is to not have water mains end, but always have them intersect with another one, loop the water main back around to keep the flow constant, or (the best option) build an iron removal plant, like Watervliet did. I am very familiar with that system [I programmed the plant and all of the communications with the pumping stations] and it works well. It does have to clean the filters once they become full of iron - but that is completed by reversing the flow of water through the filter and emptying it into a water basin (small lake). It is considered "contaminated" by the EPA and can't be released directly into a stream. I have not verified this with the city, but I would believe the total water usage to run the plant is less than when they would have to flush the hydrants all of the time. They will still have to flush them at least once a year for other reasons, but not to the extent they do now. Again I stress, I have not verified that, but it would seem very logical that statement would be true.

In the case of Watervliet, they had about 40 - 60% of the cost of the plant covered by a grant from the federal level.

The City of Portage flushed (5) fire hydrants in your area on October 3rd. Water should now be clear. If you continue to have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (269) 329-4422.

May I ask to whom you were replying? The person who opened this originally lives in a completely different area of town. Thank you.

The City's response is to the original request in the Lexington Park neighborhood. Inspections had been made at several households in the area and the hydrants were flushed to clear the water lines of the naturally occurring iron. If other areas need to be addressed, a new SeeClickFix request should be entered by a resident in that area or they should be contacting the Transportation and Utilities Department at 269-329-4422.