It’s not every day you wake up, turn on the shower, and bathe in bright pink water. But in Onoway, residents got quite the surprise after turning on their faucets on Tuesday. Of course, locals didn’t know what to think of the bright pink tap water. So, everyone took to Social Media to share their thoughts. Apparently, the strange color is harmless and came from a chemical being used to flush the lines. Now, the town in central Alberta is apologizing for the matter to its 1,000 residents for not letting them know ahead of time.
Imagine waking up to bright pink tap water
Onoway, Alta. apologizes to residents for “alarming” pink water coming out of their taps: https://t.co/CObcm8KzYl http://pic.twitter.com/4n8NkcXYVc
— Yahoo Canada (@YahooCanada) March 7, 2017
Onoway is busy apologizing to its 1,000 residents for a weird incident. Apparently, the town in Central Alberta woke up to bright pink water on Tuesday.
Beginning on Monday night, complaints poured their way into the town office. Of course, everyone was like, WTF, pink water, what’s going on?
After noticing the fuschia water coming out of their faucets, the town took to social media to share their confusion. Shelia Pockett is among the residents that saw the strange yet colorful water,
My hubby gets up this morning to take a shower and he goes, ‘Sheila, why is there pink water coming out of the faucet?’
According to Sheila, the water became clear after running it for four to five minutes. Typically, the couple steers clear of tap water. Still, she wishes the town would have let the community know beforehand by posting a warning on its website.
Finally, around 10 am Tuesday; the city made a statement on Facebook. As it turns out, a chemical they were using to flush the lines turned the water pink,
Yesterday, during normal line flushing and filter backwashing, a valve seems to have stuck open allowing potassium permanganate to get into the sump reservoir.
The reservoir was drained, however some of the chemical still made it into the distribution system.
While it is alarming to see pink water coming from your taps, potassium permanganate is used in normal treatment processes to help remove iron and manganese and residents were never at risk.
Spring is in the taps
Although residents’ complaints came about rather early, it took several hours for the town to comment on the matter. For this reason, the Mayor expressed his apologies on the city’s website,
We were never advised by Alberta Environment to issue a public advisory and all indications are that there was never a public health risk.
Could the town have done a better job of communicating what was going on yesterday to our community – absolutely, without a doubt. And we do apologize for that.
Potassium permanganate, also known as potassium salt, is the chemical that’s responsible for turning the water pink. It is a chemical disinfectant that people commonly use to remove iron and hydrogen sulphide from well and waste water.
While potassium permanganate isn’t highly toxic, it can be harmful to the skin. Because permanganate is similar to chlorine, it may irritate or burn the skin after direct contact.
The post WTF Is Going On With This Town’s Bright Pink Tap Water? appeared first on HERB.
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