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My tap water always goes a very noticeable brown/yellow after heavy rain.
Now, I live in yorkshire, so the water naturally has a little peat in it, but I've not experienced this problem with other houses I've lived in in Yorks.
What could be causing it? I've called the water board and they insist it must be something wrong with my plumbing, but I don't really see how it can be (cold water straight out of the kitchen tap, which is where the mains comes into the house, is brown too).
Whats the neighbours water like?
No-one living next door at the moment.
Are you actually on mains water? Mains water would not normally have peat in it. You could have a private water supply is you live in the hills
i work for another water company and deal with problems like you asked about. Brown water is most likely due to discolouration from iron sediment in the water mains - it would be odd for the heavy rain to have caused the problem though - as the water would have to be treated before it reaches you.
Are you at the end of a cul de sac or right out in the sticks? Brown discolouration can also be associated with a low turnover of the water in the mains too.
Always worth telling the water co that it is like that when coming straight from the kitchen tap.
Does it go clear when you have run the tap for a couple of minutes? could be due to an old iron / galvanised steel service pipe breaking down and corrosion coming out in your tap.
lots of possible causes. try the above and if no joy look at water co's website, or call them again and ask them to look into it further.
for extra help, be nice and polite to the person that calls you back - it will get you a long way if you aren't grumpy! (as if they are like me they will probably have had to speak to a lot of people that day who are grumpy!)
hope that helps...
I believe that there are some areas in Yorkshire where water is directly from springs with minimal treatment, so that could be a cause.
As jeremy said, but if you are paying a bill to a water company, then you won't be on a private supply!
I'm not on a private supply. I'm in a village and pay a water bill.
I am at the end of a cul-de-sac though, and it tends to be worse if I've also been away for a few days, so perhaps that's related?
It's an old house, so the supply pipes could conceivably be quite old too.
Not sure why rain would affect it though.
it does sounds as though you might have a problem with the supply pipe at your property - especially if worse when you have been away - the water sits in contact then appears worse when you get back.
i'd get back onto the water company and explain the problem, and politely ask for someone to call you back. I think that Yorkshire Water have scientists like me who investigate these problems. Just be prepared for it possibly being your pipework 🙂
Other possibility is that the discolouration has settled at the end of your street and they could flush it out.
The rain may well have nothing to do with it - i often speak to customers who notice problems more when the weather changes - some things seem to defy science!
And if it is in your bit of the supply pipework, expect it to possibly be mentally expensive to repair. They quoted us over 2K to fix a leak on our drive, which we did ourselves for the price of 20ft of plastic pipe!
If it's expensive to repair then I'll just run the tap for a bit until it goes clear when ever it happens!
p.s. Matthew, as a (non-water) scientist I suspect you could be right about the rain - correlations can easily appear where there aren't really any!
[i]I'm not on a private supply. I'm in a village and pay a water bill.[/i]
Doesn't necessarily make any difference.
From Scottish Water's website, but the same may apply:
[url= http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/portal/page/portal/SWE_PGP_NEWS/SWE_PGE_NEWS/INFO_WAT_QUAL/SW%20Factsheet%204.pdf ]Water Quality Factsheet[/url]
It'll depend on the source of your water.
don't assume because you are getting billed by them that they provide the water.
regardless push them to take a sample when it next occurs
Its unlikely you will have a iron service pipe (the main may well be), its more likely to be lead if its an old cottage, black alkathene or blue poly
If you are at the end of a cul-de-sac you may suffer more from the build-up of sediment but is is the responsibility of the water company to manage that by either regular flushing or mains rehabilitation.
Water companies prioritise by complaints therefore insist on a sample (when the problem occurs), if they refuse write in if no satisfaction then try CCW (Consumer Council for Water).
At the end of the day they are required by law to provide potable water and are penalised when they fail to do so. However they can't do anything about it if they are not aware. (at the same time you have to get through the call centre that will be trying to fob you off)
ah brown water
my parent water supply is straight from a spring (through a settlement tank and 2 layers of 1mm mesh to catch the dead frogs. Regularly get brown peaty water but man does it taste nice after normal tap water. You still pay a water company even if you have a private supply though as they are in charge of water quality and sewerage.
my parents water make the BEST tea in the world and is awesome mixed with whisky 🙂
For once i can actually comment with a reasonable amount of authority on a topic on STW, as this is what I spend my days investigating when not lurking on here 😆 (and not in yorkshire i must add)
If you have a private supply the water company are NOT responsible for the quality of the water at your tap. i.e. if you have your own well or borehole. These are regulated by the local councils environmental health department. You may well pay a bill for your surface water runoff and sewage services though.
You could well have an iron service pipe, there were a lot of galvanised steel pipes laid in the past, and as the galvanic corrosion protection breaks down over time this can cause the iron to oxidise in the pipe work and cause discolouration. As said above, the best thing to do is contact the water company who will help. The call centre will generally be able to advise on most common complaints, but sometimes a bit more digging is required to get to the bottom of the problem.
If you contact CC water, DWI or Ofwat, what generally happens (well for my company anyway) is they ask us to contact you and investigate, which is what we would do if you phoned directly anyway!
A lot of people will push for a sample to be collected, but this is often not neccesary as the problem can be identified on site. It might be worth keeping hold of some of the brown water next time you get it though and asking if they would analyse it. Best to use a cleaned out empty pop bottle for this.
oh, all the above might be different in Scotland though as the water there is regulated differently (no private companies - all government owned still)
My dad gets his water from a spring (spring>settling tank>few miles of plastic pipe etc.) in the peat moor, and gets brown water after very heavy rain. It never settles out - every after weeks in bottles, but as noted above, tastes really nice.
He has to get the water tested every few years, but as he has a septic tank at the house I don't _think_ he pays anything. This is in southern Scotland.
if you have a bore hole or a spring you will get it. i have a bore hole and after heavy rain our water has alot of brown in it. "never done us any harm" 😆
A lot of people will push for a sample to be collected, but this is often not neccesary as the problem can be identified on site.
it also helps the figures as there isn't a recorded water quality failure
It might be worth keeping hold of some of the brown water next time you get it though and asking if they would analyse it.
They probably won't as the bottle could be a source of contamination. However it does let the person who visits have a look at what you are getting.
You could well have an iron service pipe, there were a lot of galvanised steel pipes laid in the past
must be something thats local, never heard of them personnally for services off a water company main (obviously not talking about cast/ ductile iron mains, steel mains quite rare as they never lasted)
if you don't like call centre's write in, they have to respond or pay you money, ditto if they are late for an appointment
keep writing in until you regard the situation resolved. If it needs a mains replacement get your neighbours to complain as well (water companies rely on people giving up to defer investment) as numbers matter
if you get good service get names and write in, might get the person a good service award/ pat on the back and means he will be nice to the next [s]moaner[/s] customer 😉