If you have received notification that our crews will be flushing hydrants in your area, you can expect to see a flow of water from hydrants into the street. Some customers might see this activity and think it's a waste of water, but it's actually an important routine  maintenance activity practiced by water utilities across the country. Hydrant flushing helps remove mineral and sediment build-up from our water lines, while ensuring that hydrants are working the way that they should.   

Jetting is a routine maintenance method to clean out sewer lines. Our crews bring tanker or tandem trucks of water to a location so that they can use high pressure jets or hoses to clean out the sewer. This activity can be loud, but it won't affect your service. However, if you live within close proximity, you may notice rattling or gurgling of water in your toilet, which is completely normal and safe. Jetting activity may need to be done overnight, if our crews need to clear a sewer line urgently. 

Read more about how we use closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) to clean out sewer lines.

If you receive a service alert that references a loss of pressure, it could be due to a wide number of issues - such as a repair in our system or a routine maintenance activity. The notification that you receive may mention a specific cause, which may be described in more detail on this page. 

If the loss of pressure is not attributed to a known issue, the notification you received is an indication that our crews are aware of the issue and that they are working to restore service to normal pressure levels. Please be advised that our staff will work as quickly as possible. You do not need to report the issue to us. 

Smoke testing is an effective way to find leaks and faulty connections in our wastewater system. We use nontoxic smoke to detect direct connection points of groundwater or surface water intrusion into our sewer lines. The process is cost effective and highly efficient.

We alert customers to this activity only because it's highly visible and we want you to be informed about what we're doing in your neighborhood. It won't affect your water or wastewater service in any way, but you'll see our crews working in the street in what appears to be a fog of smoke. Smoke testing is a common practice used by wastewater utilities across the country, and it helps us continue to provide the reliable service you trust us to provide every day. 

When you receive a message about valve turning, this could mean that our crews need to isolate a section of a water main in order to make a repair or to conduct routine maintenance in our system. This type of work is done across our system throughout the year. 

One of our valve trucks is shown in the photo at right. If our crews are conducting valve turning in your area, the typical impact that you may experience is temporary low water pressure.

We work hard to provide you with reliable water service. Unfortunately, water outages are sometimes out of our control. 

If you receive an alert about a water outage, it could be due to unexpected emergency repair to a water main that serves your home.  We try to estimate how long the outage will take, but this duration may vary based on the time needed to make repairs. Our crews will work as quickly as possible to restore water service for all customers.