BEAUMONT, Texas — Residents in Beaumont are up in arms at the quality of their water. On Monday 12News received multiple calls from people complaining that water in their homes had a brown tint.
Some businesses even had to close because they were not sure if the water was safe to serve.
One of those people was Zoe Ratcliff. She has lived in her Old Town Beaumont home for three years and has only experienced brown water coming out of her faucet one other time, right after Harvey.
She said she didn't notice it until she went to water her plants.
“I filled up a cup and at first I was like ‘no that’s not right’ and I dumped it and I turned it on again," Ratcliff said. "I started to fill it up and it got darker and darker and I was like okay that’s weird.”
Ratcliff said she grew up in Lumberton and was used to well water. She said it wasn't uncommon for things like that to happen there.
Joseph Majdalani, Director of Public Works in Beaumont told 12News that crews are working to repair a leaking water main in Old Town.
A change of flow in the water caused some discoloration.
He said the water is completely safe, and fire hydrants have been opened up to help get rid of the discolored water.
Majdalani said anyone concerned about using the water should allow the tap water to run until it's clear again.
He said it could take a couple days before the discoloration completely goes away.
“You let it run for a little bit and then it goes back to normal but being on city water kind of shocked me," Ratcliff said. "I had never see that before. Not since we’ve lived here at least.”
Ratcliff said what she worried about the most is that she had given the water to her son. She filled up his dark sippy cup without even realizing it was a different color.
“When I noticed it I dumped his cup out and I just had to watch him for the day," Ratcliff said.
She said she immediately went to check their Facebook and webpage to see if there was any kind of announcement made and was shocked to see it was silent. So she posted to Facebook to see if it was happening to anyone else.
“It actually blew up because a lot of people had the same concerns as to why their water was brown for so long. Nothing was being said about it.”
Carmelas Mexican Restaurant off Calder had to close their doors for a few hours on Monday until the brown water cleared up. Sonic had to turn people away who wanted water.