SALEM, Ind. — Salem Mayor Justin Green and several public works employees gave residents an update on the discolored water situation in Salem during a public works meeting Monday.
The officials say a flush of the entire system, where fire hydrants throughout the city pump brown water onto the streets to get rid of discolored water, should be completed by Saturday at the latest.
Mayor Green is confident this will fix the discoloration issues people have been having.
"The problem at hand a month ago was quite a problem, that was fixed. The pocketed areas is what is still giving them --the crews and some residents-- some fits," Green said Monday night.
Green said that a 16-inch water main that was no longer necessary but still connected to their water system is what caused the issues. Green says that main, which he estimated was laid in 1947, had low flow and a sediment build-up. He added something happened where the main pushed all or most of its contents into the 90-mile larger system, causing discoloration throughout.
Green said they have now taken that main out of the system. The city has been flushing the system repeatedly to address this and started with a system-wide flush Sunday around noon.
During public comment, residents like Cody Halstead spoke to the City Council and said why he doesn't trust them to fix the issues.
Halstead has lived in Salem for one and a half years and says the water has always been discolored and he never drinks it. He also has studied up on the city's past water issues, including a two-year period between late 2019 and early 2022 where the city repeatedly didn't do all required state tests and didn't notify the public quickly enough.
“It’s frustrating that you continue to downplay how serious this is, considering I have a box of records from 2017 to now," Halstead said.
He also asked if the city will reimburse people who ruined their clothes washing them with the dirty water, and who have had to buy bottled water during this time.
“Will you be reimbursing them for their soiled clothing? Because it’s not an isolated incident at this point," Halstead said.
WHAS11 did speak to someone before the meeting who saw dramatic improvements with the water after the flushing started on Sunday.
Mark Radke lives in the northern part of Salem and showed us an industrial filter he installed under his house 12 to13 years ago. He said at the time, he did it because there was too strong of a chlorine smell in the water.
He has been frustrated that in the last 6 months the filters in that system have not been lasting as long. He says the sediment in the city tap water has been so strong, that his filters are getting clogged up after 1 month, where thy used to last 5 to 6 months.
However, on Monday, he showed us a jar of water from his outside tap, which is not connected to the filter, and it looked nearly the same color as the filtered water.
“Ya that’s the best color I’ve seen in a year or better," Radke said.
However, many people, like Misty Wells, haven't seen their water improve yet.
Representatives for Salem Public Works and Wessler Engineering, which has been contracted to help with the water improvements including the new water treatment plant finished in 2021, said the system will not be 100% clear when the flushing is over but it will be drastically improved.
They also reiterated that the water is safe to drink, it just doesn't look good.
“It looks terrible due to iron and manganese, but it’s purely cosmetic," Montie Dunn with Wessler said.
WHAS11 spoke to Mayor Green afterwards, and asked about how much he is viewing this current problem in the context of past water issues the city has had.
"I want the city to have the best quality, and over the years, yes our system has been plagued with some problems. Those problems have been intermittent. Those problems have been not necessarily system-wide, it has been certain areas," Green said. "And so moving forward, we've done a lot of work. We've done a lot of linear pipe replacement. We've got a lot of linear pipe scheduled. We have an old system and old things need updating, and certainly don't want to shy away from any of that."
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