Water problem between pavement stopcock and road main?

[None]

I have a lot of sediment in my house's incoming water, which markedly improves after turning off the pavment stopcock, turning back on again, and then flushing the water through the washing machine hose, which is in the garden shed.

The water feels so much cleaner and palatable for both drinking and bathing for a few days, then returns to its murky state, containing black particles and more discoloured than usual. I have had the supply line tested for leaks on my side of the stopcock, none were discovered. There isn't any visual evidence to support a leak outside our boundary either, even the council flushing out the mains from a hydrant has no effect, but its frustrating to think that when I flush my supply line as I said above, the water can be very good for 'limited time only' lol.

The problem has been this way for years now. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? I have to suspect there is something faulty between my house's boundary stopcock and the street main, but without a wet spot showing, the council won't dig it up and look at what the problem might be. I'd appreciate any feedback.

[Lobster]

Doubt you'll appreciate this feedback though.

You've already posted this query in a different form and had lots of response - what's the idea of duplicating it? You'll find this practice really gets up people's noses in this newsgroup.

David

[Andy Hall]

So create a wet spot.....

[clot]

You could be on a balance point on the mains system. What I mean by this is that the water mains in your street could be fed in two directions. When the demand varies either side of you gunge in the main slops along the system. This effect can be very localised and that may be why your neighbours are unaffected. I used to be involved in resolving such problems for a water authority in the UK.

Where is your supply from? Are you fed by the Stillorgan(?) service reservoir?

[None]

Yes, we get our water from the Stillorgan reservoir I'm pretty sure. If this is the problem, how would it be solved? Thanks.

[None]

Hey Clot, I've tried getting in touch with you... we are fed by the Stillorgan reservoir. Could you please tell me how this sort of problem could be resolved, if it indeed turns out to be the case? Either way, I'm going to have to battle the council to get answers. I am sick to death of this problem. We got a notice in the letterbox this week telling us that the mains had been flushed, and the water was lovely and clear... for about 48 hours. The thing is, because it isn't really apparent to the naked eye, people who come to have a look at it dismiss the problem. There is still a huge difference between how it looked two days ago though. It seems to be very fine sand/silt which is being brought through.

[clot]

If your street is fed in two directions then you can have localised problems as "old water" and gunge slops a few metres along the pipe if the pressure from one feed reduces ( say due to demand on the system) thus pushing water in the other direction. Flushing will tend to clear the system for a while but it frequently recurs - though such problems ususally take more than a few days for this to happen.

I asked about Stillorgan because from recollection it is still uncovered and due for covering this year. In undertaking this work there will be disruptions to the system (as supplies are temporarily routed around the affected part via other mains or temporary mains) and customers are likely to have temporary changes to the quality of the water they receive - though this is likely to affect a wide number of consumers. The practice here in the UK is to advice customers beforehand that this may occur.

[None]

I'm going to request another 'aggressive' flushing, as the first one helped a lot, but still didn't clear it up enough. I hope I don't have to keep requesting this service, as they'll be sick of it pretty quickly. I don't suppose there's much chance of me finding out whether the problem is in fact what you're saying, but it sounds very likely. I have never experienced such strange, changeable water anywhere else.

What do you mean by covered exactly? And do you reckon it would even be feasible to persuade the local council that there is a problem worth investigating and fixing?

[None]

Wherefore art thou clot?

[clot]

Here, Romeo.

Try these sites (and others!). It took me but a moment on Google!

[clot]

I should have added that I entered "Stillorgan Service Reservoir"! My apologies, comes of being in the trade.