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Woodland Residents Complaining About Brown Water After Source Switch

WOODLAND (CBS13) — Complaints about brown tap water have Woodland city engineers flushing water mains.

The completion of a new multimillion dollar-water plant recently converted homes from ground to surface water.

When Eliesar Rodriguez turned on the faucet to brush his teeth, sandy stuff flowed out.

"I just thought the pipes were unsanitary," he said.

He used a water bottle instead, but his dad says that's nothing new.

"The water's always been gross out here, we don't ever drink from the faucet," said Bill Rodriguez.

But that's when the city was on wells. Woodland recently switched to surface water pumped from the Sacramento River to homes in Woodland and Davis. The city even raised water rates to pay for the plant.

So why the brown tap water? It's old pipes that aren't used to new water.

"The older pipes in our system have decades of accumulated sediment. we did do flushing ahead of time, but the entire city was not flushed," said city engineer Tim Busch.

The water may be dirty, but he says it's safe, and it's just a matter of flushing out that sediment.

Why didn't the city change the old pipes, too? It's a work in progress.

"We did look at trying to replace the pipes however it costs about $1 million per mile to do that and we have 220 miles of pipe," he said.

It's a temporary problem he says as the city looks toward a permanent water solution.

In the meantime, the city is asking people with discolored water to call the city's public works department, and engineers will come out and flush the mains.

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