Borough will reverse water flow later this month to flush rust from pipes
By: Mark Moffa
HIGHTSTOWN – Debbie Karvelas has been wearing more black and dark-colored clothing lately.
No, she’s not in mourning. She’s simply suffering from a bad case of rusty water.
Ms. Karvelas approached the Borough Council on Monday to inform members that her water often is rust-colored.
"It’s always been a slight problem," she said Thursday. Ms. Karvelas has lived on North Main Street for 16 years, but she said incidents of rusty water have increased significantly within the past year and a half.
"I call the water plant all the time," she said. "They must be sick of me down there."
Councilman Lawrence Quattrone told Ms. Karvelas the problem is related to local construction.
"Any time you disturb a water main you get rust, especially when you’ve got pipes as old as ours," Mr. Quattrone said. "When they do any kind of construction work you’re going to get rusty water."
He thinks that rusty water on North Main Street within the last two years could be related to the construction of the Hightstown bypass, or Route 133.
Mr. Quattrone said that construction workers were taking "truck loads" of water from the main at that end of town. "They disturbed it a lot," he said.
He told Ms. Karvelas at Monday’s meeting that the situation should clear up by the end of the month.
"I’m not quite sure if we’re happy with the answer," said Linda Kuhn, a neighbor of Ms. Karvelas’ who was present at the meeting to show support.
Ms. Kuhn said she has rusty water as well, although hers doesn’t seem to be as bad as Ms. Karvelas’ water. She said she experienced about three or four days with rusty water in the last two weeks.
But both women say their white clothes are taking a beating.
"Both of us did a load of laundry and had to do it again," Ms. Kuhn said.
Ms. Karvelas said it has gotten to the point where she sometimes has to do laundry at someone else’s house.
"It’s very frustrating," she said.
Ms. Kuhn feels she is not getting her money’s worth.
"Our water fees are so high that it should not be up to us to get a water filter put on our house," Ms. Kuhn said.
Ms. Karvelas said she pays a lot in taxes already.
"To have to spend more money because of the water is not really what I want to be doing," she said.
Ms. Karvelas said she first contacted the borough about a year ago. A borough employee who recently died used to drop rust remover off at the house so Ms. Karvelas could rinse the rust color out of her white laundry. Now, she buys the rust remover herself.
She said she knows the water is not rusty when it leaves the water treatment plant. "Leaving the plant it is OK, it’s just when it gets through the lines to the house that it’s bad," she said.
She’s had the water tested twice, once when it was rust-colored and again Tuesday night when it was clear.
Surprisingly, both results showed the same amount of iron in the water – 1.5 parts per million. The normal, she said, is 0.3 ppm.
"That’s five times the level it should be," Ms. Karvelas said.
Iron, when exposed to air and moisture over time, corrodes and forms rust.
"The rust is not a health hazard," Mr. Quattrone said. He said the rust is merely an inconvenience.
Ms. Karvelas said that the results from Tuesday explain why her white laundry was turning out rust-colored at times when the water didn’t appear rust-colored.
The iron content is high all the time, she said, not just when the water is rust-colored. A level of 1.5 ppm, although perhaps not abnormal for well water, is high for city water, she added.
These findings have led Ms. Karvelas to conclude that she may have to purchase a filter and water softener for her house.
"It’s a filter to take out the iron that’s not in solution," she said. "The softener takes care of the stuff that’s dissolved in the water.
"It’s safe to say it’s going to cost well over $1,000."
She realizes the borough can’t do anything about the rust except replace the pipes.
"They’re in the process of starting to reline them but I have no idea when that’s going to be finished," she said.
Mr. Quattrone said the borough is going to flush the pipes this month. The direction of the water will be reversed in an effort to flush the rust out of the system.
Ms. Karvelas said she appreciates Mr. Quattrone’s efforts to solve the problem, but she wonders how many others have the same problem.