‘It just appeared and disappeared’: Northern Utah’s yellow water mystery
CLEARFIELD, Utah (ABC4) — The source for the recent discoloration in northern Utah’s water remains unclear, but the water has seemingly returned to normal, according to the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District.
“It’s just really weird,” said Scott Paxman, the general manager and CEO of the conservancy district. “It’s like something happened and went through really quick.”
Source of yellow water in northern Utah cities under investigation
On Thursday, Clearfield City posted on their Facebook page asking for residents to report if their water was discolored and yellow.
With more than 200 comments, the response was certain. The water in Clearfield and across Weber and Davis counties was yellow or discolored in some way.
“Starting yesterday morning … we sent our guys out to collect hundreds of samples,” Paxman said. “I mean, they collected samples, the cities collected samples within their service area, and we analyzed them on the spot. All samples came back clear, except for one from Layton City.”
The one from Layton was hazy and not yellow, Paxman said. With all other samples clear of anything concerning, harmful or out of the ordinary, officials weren’t sure what was going on.
“We were wondering as if there was a little bit of iron or manganese in the water that reacts with chlorine,” Paxman said. “But it’s different. It’s not yellow. It’s usually orange or brown.”
Residents in Clearfield, Layton, Syracuse, Hooper, Kaysville, Sunset, and other northern Utah cities all reported seeing yellow water, making this a regionwide issue, not just a city-wide one.
So, with clear samples and no answers, Paxman and his team started to theorize.
“If the fire hydrant was flushing or had a fire and so the velocities in the pipe speed up and it stirs up scours the pipe a little bit, that’s a possibility,” he said.
Paxman said another reason could be because of the reservoirs and the change in weather. He explained that as we move into the winter months, the warm water at the bottom wants to come to the surface, and in doing so stirs up the reservoir.
“We’ll get a fishy taste, we’ll get different colors of water, typically orange or something like that,” he said.
However, with the discoloration lasting only a short time left Paxman and his team dumbfounded.
“It just appeared and disappeared,” he said. “So, we’re not sure why.”
Paxman added that they have done further testing and those results should be available Monday. But from their initial tests and all tests afterwards, the water was fine to drink and use.
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