A water main pipe break was not the cause of the discoloration of water April 5 and 7.
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While city officials do not yet know the reason for discolored water in on- and off-campus buildings last week, the Hillsdale Board of Public Utilities has ruled out work on a water main service line as the cause.
“We’re not sure where [the discoloration] stemmed from,” BPU Water Superintendent Bill Briggs said. “We have launched a full investigation, and we’re still trying to determine the root cause.”
Kevin Lawrence, water treatment superintendent at the Hillsdale Water Treatment Plant, said the discoloration could be many things, including a disturbance in the velocity of the water flow.
“We ran a couple of tests and didn’t find any positive results that would point to a reason for the discoloration,” Lawrence said.
Although the BPU was repairing a water main service lead on College Street April 6, Briggs said neither the work on nor the issues with the pipe caused the water discoloration last week, contrary to what many affected by the discolored water believed.
As the Hillsdale College administration purchases and then tears down houses in the area, service leads, which are the lines stemming from water mains and connecting to the houses, are disconnected at the curb stop per regulations, where water flowing to a home can be turned off.
“The water line had been turned off at the curb stop, but it developed a leak, possibly due to soil corrosion, so we had to dig to the water main, turn off the valve, disconnect the line, remove it, then fill the hole,” Briggs said.
The BPU completed work on the service lead by early afternoon on Wednesday and did some terrace work, which includes laying dirt and seed at the work area, on Thursday.
Chief Administration Officer Rich Péwé said via email the college is also unaware of the cause of the discoloration.
“Sometimes they flush the system or have to do work on a main and it causes the rust color… I don’t think they were flushing the system,” Péwé said. “They can’t always explain what the cause is.”
