West Deptford Officials: Water Should Clear By Tuesday Night

Lingering rust from this weekend’s low water levels in West Deptford’s water towers should clear the system by some time tonight, public works manager Ed Phelps said Tuesday.

At this point, most of the problem is confined to the north end of town, in the area along and around Red Bank and Hessian avenues, which is the far end of the township’s water system–most of the wells and the connection to New Jersey American Water Company are off Mantua Grove Road on the southern end, which was generally unaffected by the rust.

Phelps said sporadic rust and discolored water, which is caused by chlorine in the system oxidizing the iron in the rust, should clear out naturally, but trying to flush your water by running it in the bathtub or outside from a hose isn’t going to help much.

“If you have to run your water for a couple minutes and it hasn’t cleared, you’re just wasting your time,” Phelps said.

Meanwhile, workers are out sampling water to keep an eye on whatever rust is still out there, and if it’s still a problem heading into Wednesday, Phelps said the township will open up hydrants and flush the northern end of the township–something they just did back in April, as part of periodic maintenance.

The original problem stemmed from faulty sensors in the township’s water tanks, which failed to register low levels, which Phelps said were potentially within a few feet of the tanks’ bottoms, though he’s not exactly sure.

He said increased demand over the holiday weekend–people filling pools for the summer and running sprinkler systems–likely contributed to the problem, but it came back to the faulty equipment.

“According to sensors, (the tanks) were still high,” he said.

As soon as workers realized what the actual conditions were, they started pumping water at 2,000 gallons per minute into the half-million-gallon tanks on Red Bank Avenue and Mantua Grove Road, and the massive, two-million-gallon Jessup Road tower, and water levels were back to normal Saturday night into Sunday morning, Phelps said.

Township administrator Eric Campo said it was a few hours after the township discovered the low water problem that the first complaints of rusty water started filtering in to the water department.

“We were on the phone all weekend trying to get it resolved,” Campo said.

A notice was posted on the township website Sunday, which indicated the rust could be in the system for 48 hours from the time of the notice.