Water Utility

Madison-On Sunday night, October 21, from about 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., customers in the southwest part of the City of Madison experienced low pressure or no water during water main flushing operations. As a result, water may have been drawn into the public water system from private homes and businesses.

On Sunday night, Water Utility staff immediately determined that harmful contamination was unlikely because the problems occurred in newer residential areas, and proceeded with actions to mitigate the situation. On Monday, during the day, additional investigations were conducted which further supported the conclusion that no harmful contamination had occurred.

A map of Sunday night's flushing area is attached. Low pressure problems occurred predominantly in high-elevation residential neighborhoods, as indicated by red points on the map.

Reasons for this unexpected event may include changes to the operational plan, increased development in the area, and extra demand due to late baseball and football games.

Additional night flushing will continue this week on Tuesday (west and southeast sides of town), Wednesday (southeast) and Thursday (southeast). Operational plans will take the World Series games into account.