Heather Curtis

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Calls about brown tap water in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties continue to come into the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

Residents first started complaining about brown tinted tap water in February. Since then the WSSC has been trying to figure out what’s causing the discoloration and how to get rid of it.

“We do believe it’s somehow related to the winter weather and what is put on the roads, but there are other factors involved which include the makeup of the pipe and the age of the pipes and also where we get our water compared to some of the other utilities cause we have that creek that’s right above our intake over in the Potomac River and there’s a lot of runoff that comes into that creek, so we get maybe a lot more concentration of the road chemicals that come into the water,” said WSSC Spokesman Jim Neustadt.

The WSSC found brown water was also prevalent about a decade ago following a harsh winter. Areas with older pipes are getting more brown water than areas with newer ones.

The commission has been flushing the system out to try to get rid of the brown water while also looking into other remedies.

“We understand our customers are sometimes very upset about this and understandably so,” Neustadt said apologizing to customers.

While drinking a tall glass of brown water isn’t exactly appetizing, Neustadt said it is perfectly safe to drink, but don’t do your laundry in it without Rit rust remover. The WSSC provides Rit for customers for free. It’s also sold at drug stores.

Even though the WSSC knows which areas are frequently getting brown water, Neustadt encourages anyone affected to call 301-206-4002.

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