Flushing

Why does Denver Water flush water mains?

Flushing is done to clean out our water pipelines by removing rust or sediment that may be present in the pipe.

Rust, mostly iron and manganese, builds up all year and is deposited on the inside of our water mains. These minerals are harmless, but as more and more people start watering their lawns and turning on sprinkler systems, they can become loose sediment that ends up in your water supply.

Our annual flushing program takes care of this problem in a few minutes, but it may also create some problems for you, our customer. If you are running water when we are flushing, you could get some dirty water. If this does happen, you should not run your hot water or do any laundry. Turn on and run your cold water until the dirty water clears out of your pipes, then flush your hot water tank by opening the valve at the bottom of the tank. If you are doing laundry, do not dry the wet clothes. Washing these items again will normally take care of the problem, but if this procedure doesn't solve the problem, you can contact our Loss Control personnel at 303-628-6300 for help.

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Flushing is done to prevent problems and insure that you have fresh drinking water at all times.