FESTUS, Mo. – Depending on where you are in Festus, your water may sometimes look discolored.
“(It’s) often brown, often orange, but on good days it’s like a yellow color,” Brian Sebelski told us. “There have been times where I just drained the bath and walked away.”
Sebelski’s neighbor also sent pictures of what she said her water filter looked like after one week. The filter colored a rusty brown color.
Another neighbor, Jon Spradling, said, “I have a cat upstairs, and I won’t even let the cat drink it.”
Yet just blocks away on Main Street, shop owners say the water is crystal clear.
“All the Facebook warriors on there talking about their dirty water, and people are like, well, I’m two blocks away and mine’s fine,” Mike Graham with Father Time Clock Shop said. “It hadn’t affected Main Street because I’m guessing it’s been over 20 years (since) they redid Main Street.”
Infrastructure is the issue, according to Festus City Manager Greg Camp. Old and corroding water mains are impacting the color of some people’s water.
“It’s iron oxide from the old cast iron main,” Camp told us. “It’s nothing that is toxic. It is unattractive, that’s for sure, and you probably don’t want to taste it either.”
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources confirmed to FOX 2 that’s the water is nontoxic, also providing us with its latest water quality report for Festus showing no violations of drinking water regulations.
Festus, however, is replacing all of its old water mains “that are 68 years old, and combined, it’s over a $1.6 million investment on just water mains alone to get these older lines out of the ground,” Camp said.
He said they’re about 90 days out from finishing this job, with the final phase replacing the water mains on Main Street.
During the wait, residents can get some short-term relief by asking the water department to flush the lines with a hydrant to clear out some of the iron oxide buildup.
“Call us at city hall; call us at public works. We’ll get a crew out there and address the problem as quickly as we can,” Camp added.