With thanks to the Bernalwood readers who reached out to us, we reached out to our friends at the San Francisco Water Department to find out what’s up with the icky brown water flowing from some household taps in Bernal Heights today.
SFWater kindly responded, and launched a special alert about this incident — and what you should do about it:
A water hydrant was hit by a car on Mullen Avenue at Montcalm Street at approximately 4:30 AM, May 23, 2014, resulting in temporary, discolored water in the Bernal Heights neighborhood and surrounding area. The local fire station turned off the water but the change in pressure in the pipes caused some temporary discoloration of the water.
Why is my water is dirty or discolored?
Dirty or discolored (rusty, yellow, brown) is typically caused by sediments that have become stirred up inside of a water main or pipe. Any increase in water velocity through a pipe or main can cause increased friction against pipe walls that can stir up sediments. Common causes are main breaks, shutdown of a facility, loss of pressure or the opening of a fire hydrant in the immediate area.What to do?
First, avoid using your hot water so that you don’t draw discolored water into your water heater or boiler. Next, check to see if the water supplying your home or business is clear or dirty/discolored. To do this, open a tap (cold water) on the ground floor as close to the water meter (located in the street) as possible. Typically, this would be a hose bib at the front of the house or a downstairs utility sink. Run the water for 3-5 minutes to see if it runs clear. If not, turn off the tap and repeat in about 20-30 minutes. When the water runs clear at the ground floor tap, flush out your plumbing by opening faucets, and flushing toilets inside your home or business. If your hot water does not run clear, it is possible that the dirty/discolored water has entered your hot water heater or boiler. For safety reasons, it is recommended that you call PG&E or a plumber to flush the water heater or boiler.
Thanks for the useful info, and well played @SFWater!
PHOTO: Dirty water pictured is not in Bernal Heights, and not this year. Shown for illustration purposes only. 2012 photo by Ryan Wohleber via Flickr
Bernalwood 
Ewwww!
Thanks for this info. I got up around 4:30 and there wasn’t any water to flush the toilet so I was anticipating the worst.
funny our water started turning brown on Tuesday May 20th evening, first time its ever happened in two years. We must have prescient pipes.
BAH! These newbies don’t know anything. It’s National Urine Day, a time to celebrate the human’s most prodigious product. In Africa they’re making urine-based flashlights. In Berkeley there’s a power plant that can run on urine. And where would our teeth whiteners, baked goods, and cigarettes be without urea, the major component of urine?
Glad to know I wasn’t the only one experiencing this! I let it run a minute or so and it was clear.