Brown Water In Broken Arrow

Chris Howell, NewsOn6.com

BROKEN ARROW, OK -- Some residents of Broken Arrow have noticed a distinct brown color to their normally clear tap water in the last few weeks.

When Marilyn Folk filled her above-ground pool the water was so brown she refused to let her kids Caitlyn and Nickolas swim.

"What do I do?" Marilyn asked.  "Is it safe?  Do I need to drain the pool?  Should I put extra chlorine in it?"

Broken Arrow officials describe this as a 'growing pain' due to B.A.'s rapid expansion.

"This is something we usually face this time of year when temperatures begin to warm up," Keith Sterling, B.A.'s Director of Communications, explained.  "Folks start to fill their pools up, use their sprinklers, use more water, we need to pump more water from our source.  Being as the source is far away, as we turn on the pumps to get it here that stirs up sediment."

Sterling says the water is checked as it enters the Broken Arrow water system and is safe to drink.

The lines should be clear of the sediment in a few days.

Within a few years B.A. intends to bring new water treatment facilities online to permanently solve the problem.

Marilyn said she wished she had been informed of the problem before she filled her pool.