Utilities Office

The Water Department issues precautionary boil water advisories when a loss of pressure in the water main can potentially contaminate the water. Although these advisories can be inconvenient they are issued for your protection. If you are under a Boil Advisory, you should boil vigorously for three minutes any water used for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, making ice, or other consumption. You do not need to boil water for bathing, washing dishes, laundry, or other external uses.

Service outages are normally the result of an unexpected water line break or a natural disaster that causes a power outage. Many of the unexpected line breaks are the result of construction activity near the water line. Remember state law requires any one to call the utility protection service before digging so that all utilities in the area can be located. This is primary for your safety, but it also reduces the service interruptions for your neighbors. There are other occasions when the outage could be part of scheduled system maintenance. The Water Department is proud of our good record of keeping the water flowing. Please call the business office whenever you see a leak.

The Water Department normally flushes the system mains in spring and summer by running water out the fire hydrants. This process accomplishes two things. First, opening a hydrant increases the velocity of the water moving through the water lines and causes any sediment that may have settled in the line to be moved out through the hydrant. One of the side effects is that if a customer happens to draw water while the cloudy water is moving past their service connection some of the cloudy water will be drawn into the service line. To reduce the chance of getting cloudy water, a customer should avoid using water while the crew is flushing in the neighborhood, especially do not wash laundry. After the crew has finished flushing in the neighborhood, the customer should open a faucet and let the water runs for a few minutes to ensure there is no cloudy water in the service line. Second, the flushing activities are also an opportunity to exercise each fire hydrant and check for needed maintenance so the hydrants will be ready to use in an emergency.

The Water Department is performing a line maintenance program that runs from early spring thru late fall to ensure that valves and other parts of the system are ready for use in case of an emergency. This involves opening and closing valves and temporary pump station shutdowns. During this activity the customer may experience low pressure, cloudy water, or possible brief service outages. When the crew is working in your area, a customer should limit water usage and not wash laundry. At the end of the work day, the customer should open a faucet and let the water run for a few minutes to flush any cloudy water from the service line. This work will be performed from 8:30 until 3:30 on normal work days. When work is planned the schedule will be posted below.