Hydrant flushing

Once or perhaps twice a year, the city comes round and opens the valves on the fire hydrants, to flush out any accumulated minerals in the pipes and to make sure they operate properly. Spring cleaning, if you will.

Our water system is very old, and our water contains a lot of dissolved minerals; manganese, I'm told, is predominant and accounts for the reddish colour that can be seen in the standing water at the base of the hydrant.

When the city is flushing hydrants, don't wash your clothes, or they'll get that slightly red tinge, too. Necessitating another round of spring cleaning! By the way, our city water supply is artesian, very pure and quite tasty compared to some municipal water I've tasted.