Brown water pouring from some Charlottetown taps

The City of Charlottetown sent out an advisory late Wednesday night regarding discolouration of municipal water.

The city believes the problem originated in flushing activities at the SuffoIk well field. Water and sewer utility manager Richard MacEwen said this was regular maintenance to clean out the pipes. Backflow of sediment to customers is unusual in this kind of operation but it does happen, he said.

MacEwen said there should not be any health concerns.

"It's just discolouration, a little bit of rust in the water. Hopefully most people would see the discolouration in a glass of water and probably not want to drink that," he said.

MacEwen added people should wait for the water to clear before drinking it.

The problems were mostly in the Hillsborough neighbourhood, with a few reports downtown. The utility was out flushing hydrants overnight in an effort to clear the problem, and MacEwen said the problem should be mostly fixed. If residentssee discoloured water they should run the water for a couple of minutes to see if it clears.

If it does not clear, you should contact the water utility.

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