Red boxes may fix brown water
Staff writer
Better water may be coming for residents at the end of Marion’s water lines.
Sections of the city, particularly on the south side of town, have reported poor water quality in recent years.
“This isn’t new to the city,” said Bill Lundy, who moved to his home on Fairway Dr. in 2016. “Everyone who’s at the end of a line has issues. … We started having them the day we moved into the house.”
Lundy and his wife drink tap water, but only after it has passed through a filtration system installed at their sink.
“If we didn’t have a filter, it would be orange,” he said.
The city’s water department is using bright-red devices called automatic flushing boxes to try to remedy the problem.
Boxes popped up in abundance last week.
They periodically are attached to fire hydrants around Marion.
For 15 minutes the boxes flush out sediment that has condensed at the end of the pipe.
Water sprays out from the bottoms of the boxes.
“I’ll break cinder blocks in half, and I’ll put the broken cinder blocks underneath the box just so it doesn’t destroy somebody’s lawn,” water operator Jason Wheeler said. “It does come out at quite a high [pressure].”
Wheeler occasionally hears complaints from those living at the end of lines.
Anyone experiencing poor water quality should call the city office, he said.
His team will flush the nearby lines using one of the boxes.
Josh Tajchman, who had a flushing box in his yard Friday, said it was too early to tell whether it was having an effect.
“We don’t drink it,” he said. “We have bottled water.”
Lundy said the city flushes when he calls them, but he would like to see devices used more regularly.
“I think it will help, as long as they’re used,” Lundy said. “My question is: How often are they running them?”
The devices are used from early spring to late autumn, Wheeler said. They cannot be used in winter, as they can freeze onto hydrants.
The city has said the boxes run on a schedule set by the water department.
City administrator Brian Wells said the boxes were used until chlorine levels in the water reach proper levels.
“We get it in for the dead zones,” Wells said.
The city has six, which cost $3,000 a pop.
It began buying them three years ago, Wheeler said.
He hopes the city can acquire more. He would like to have 12 different boxes to use around town.
Wells said the city would like to buy more flushing boxes.
“It’s just seeing where the budget’s at for the end of the year,” he said. “We’ll try to get them at least two more. It helps them move around easier, faster.”
More frequent use of the boxes could be the solution to the water issues in his part of town, Lundy said.
“If they’re used right, it will help everybody,” he said.