From the City’s Public Works Director:
Nobody wants to turn on the faucet and be greeted by brown water that is caused by sediment and rust in the City’s water system pipes. I understand that some residents had extremely brown mucky water, which makes the problem even more difficult. I sincerely apologize for those affected by the situation. Moving forward, we intend to issue additional “Code Red” notifications. The notifications will help provide awareness to those that may experience water quality issues due to problems with the City’s water system.
The “Code Red” notification would be issued when the water system problems have the potential of effecting a large area of the City and not necessarily during an isolated water main break.
After testing the water in the tower, the City received notification from the IEPA that the water tower can be put back into service. We do not anticipate having many of the issues that we experienced when filling the water tower, nevertheless, we issued a “Code Red” to inform the residents of the situation. City Staff will be putting the water tower into service tomorrow, Thursday (October 10, 2019) at 9 am. This may cause a disturbance in the water system. If you experience water quality issues, please contact City Hall (815) 784- 2327.