Thank you for contacting us. The Department flushed fire hydrants over night which has caused discoloration in the water. We are aware of the issue. Please run your cold water for 15-20 minutes, if the water doesn't clear please call the Water Division at (508) 647-6557, this morning and we can send over a technician.

SERIOUSLY FILTHY WATER on Everett Street. Has the town just given up on notifying residents when these events occur. Multiple times this summer water has been dirty and no town notification. Do we not have a nice alert feature on the town website? And yes, I know fall hydrant flushing is going on...but neither Everett or Cottage are listed as streets affected the week of Oct 9 and they are well away from the shaded area shown on the hydrant flushing map.

Can we please get notices/alerts/anything to when this is going to be an issue? This happened this morning in the city center, and knowing ahead of time would have prevented me from being late this morning, as well as not taking a disgusting shower.

We place a notice in the news paper, we post it on the Town's website, we put it out on twitter, we put out an electronic sign board, and we place multiple sign boards in the area. We conduct our water main maintenance flushing almost every spring and fall. We cannot predict whom will be effected and when. We apologize for any inconvenience this process may cause.

The newspaper isn't free.
The site had a post on 9/27 but no new post to let anyone know where it was happening.
I have seen no signage whatsoever in the town center.
The current map for flushing doesn't explain brown water in the town center area.

I was going to re-open this, but Brian beat me to it.
Nobody is arguing with the need for the flushing. But your process is flawed and your notification is flawed. Believe me, the dozen parents at the bus stop this morning were not talking about what a wonderful job the water department does. Indeed, a flushing notice was posted on Sept 28 warning that flushing will occur in Oct and Nov. Then a link to the impacted streets for the week of Oct 9 is provided. Now you say "we cannot predict..." So why post a list of streets? Does this mean the entire town can expect brown water at any time for 2 months? Again, I encourage you to think carefully about how you do the flushing, what the past experience has been and how to use technology to update the people you work for. Even now, when I am sure the phones are ringing in your office, you have not used the simple alert feature on the town website to notify folks of what is going on. Oh, and running my tubs for 20 minutes only produced a tub full of mud and continued brown from the tap.

At least you are at home and can try to remedy this issue, others of us are at work.

This item has been closed.