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Jackson Residents Urged To Flush Their Water Systems During Fire Hydrant Flow Testing Program

Lindsey Grojean/KRCU

Yesterday, the city of Jackson began their annual Fire Hydrant Flow Testing Program.

Between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily, fire department crews will be flushing hydrants and water mains to conduct flow tests, and clear buildup that may have settled in pipes.

Although residents should refrain from using the water until their own supply clears up, Kent Peetz, public works director for the city of Jackson, says the process does not affect the safety of the water supply.

“It’s not toxic, it just kind of looks funny,” says Peetz. “And again, depending on what kind of sediments we stir up, whether that would discolor your white laundry or not, that could happen.”

Peetz says residents can flush their own system by opening and running an outside hydrant to keep the water supply away from household appliances, and then run each indoor faucet until it clears up as well. He says it would hurt to clean the aerator and filter in indoor faucets, as well.

The department will be ‘fire-flowing’ 192 hydrants out of 600 in the city this year. The flow tests are used to give a rating of how many gallons per minute a hydrant will produce in an emergency.

They began in the central part of town, and will work their way west, then north. At 10-20 hydrants per day, the process should take crews about a month to complete.