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Due to another round of water line swabbing, some St. Cloud residents will be briefly without water next week.
In response to concerns about discolored water found in some parts of the city, the City of St. Cloud announced Thursday it will be conducting another round of line swabbing operations at specific locations next week.
In a line swabbing, the water lines are cleaned with a large swab and then disinfected with a chlorine solution before being returned to service. Line swabbing requires the water line to be taken out of service during the cleaning process, which means affected customers will be without water during that time. The city will deliver a supply of bottled water to affected customers.
To minimize impacts on customers, the city will conduct the line swabbing from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sunday, and from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Monday through Wednesday. A precautionary boil water notice will be in effect during the swabbing. The city is directly notifying affected customers via text, email and notices at their homes.
The trouble began in 2016. A failure at Water Treatment Plant No. 4 allowed resin used in the water treatment process to leak into the water lines, causing discoloration. While the plant was repaired and resin stopped leaking into the system, residual resin remains in the water lines.
The city has used line swabbing along with ice pigging and unidirectional flushing to clean the remaining resin from the pipes. The city thus far has conducted ice pigging on 57 miles of pipe, line swabbing on 36 miles of pipe, and unidirectional flushing on 105 miles of pipe. The line swabbing scheduled for this week will add another seven miles to the total that has been swabbed.
“The resin can lie dormant in the pipes, but if it gets stirred up, it can end up coming out of customer’s faucets, causing the water to be discolored,” said Marjorie Craig, Director of Environmental Utilities. “We take this seriously and are continuing our commitment and redoubling our efforts to clean any remaining resin from the pipes.”
Customers who have questions or special needs should call St. Cloud Utilities Customer Service at 407-957-7344.
