Foul, orange water revolts Dannevirke residents

It's not orange squash, it's water from Christian St resident Shane Durbin's tap. As he indicates, it's not only undrinkable but smells disgusting. Photo / Christine McKay

Dannevirke's water has left some residents disgusted and reeling from the orange colour and murky appearance, describing it as disgusting and undrinkable.

For Shane Durbin and two other Christian St residents, it's a problem they've been dealing with since February. But now the situation was untenable, Mr Durbin said.

"The Tararua District Council needs to stand up and do their job," he said, as more orange, vile-smelling water gushed from his taps.

Mr Durbin said council staff had flushed the pipes in his street and told him they would regularly do so, but the problem continued.

"I want the mayor to come and have a glass of water at my place.

"We've gone through three electric jugs in nine months and my wife is out buying another jug today," he said late last week.

"We're buying a box of water every day from the supermarket now and council should be paying for that as we're paying our water rates for water we can't drink.

"There are other houses in this end of Christian St all having the same problems.

"One chap purchased five new, white singlets in February, washed them and they all turned brown, and my towels aren't any better."

Late last week, after visiting the council again, Mr Durbin said people thought he was carrying a bottle of orange juice with him. But ... it was his tap water.

"Just disgusting," he said.

"I've never had skin problems before, but I've been scratching like mad and just look at the water in my washing machine ... "

Mr Durbin is concerned about the harm the rust-coloured water is doing to his washing machine and hot-water cylinder.

"Four households I know of have spoken to council since February."

Dave Watson, Tararua District Council's utilities manager, has told the Dannevirke News the Christian St problem is baffling.

"If there was a problem, we'd fix it," he said.

"But this is so isolated. There are three households in Christian St affected.

"The water is travelling, not sitting, the valves are open in all directions and there are no problems in the surrounding streets.

"Just three of six or seven homes in this block of Christian St are affected. The water is beautiful coming in the town system."

Mr Watson said the council flushed the system in Christian St and it was running clear on Thursday afternoon.

However, Tricia Jones on Queen St is also disgusted by the murky water and had to buy bottled water last week.

"We were drinking this stuff until we realised something was wrong.

"The water has been redder than this sample, too. It's rust and it turns my whites red."

Last Thursday an Albert St resident told the Dannevirke News his water appeared "rusty".

"I hope it's not because I don't think drinking rust is good for you," he said.

Mr Watson said the pipes had been flushed in the Queen St area.

"If residents affected by murky water up there ran their taps for half an hour, it would clear.

"But the isolated problem with three Christian St homes is bizarre.

"We're trying to eliminate the cause, but there's also a possibility it could be old galvanised pipework [laterals] running into these homes."

Homeowners are responsible for the water laterals stretching from the footpath to their homes.