You Want Me to Drink THAT?

Ok, so at 9:30 this morning our water went off. No reason, no crazy weather, no unpaid bills (no one pays a water bill here in Hobart), just empty hissing pipes. I found the city council phone number for the water department and got through to a wonderfully nice woman. The city had to do unplanned water mane work. Ok good, we didn't miss an obvious note on the door or letter in the mail warning us. The woman said the water would return at 10:45, so at 11am I check and yep it was on alright.

BUT, it looked like this:

Holy crap, that's nasty! Luckily it did not smell or anything, just really mucky and silty filled water. I was so pleased when we moved to Hobart to find the tap water completely drinkable, clear and clean. I want my nice water back now please!

After running the bath for about an hour, as suggested by the nice water lady, the color did not change (for better or worse).
One more call, the same instructions and no new information about when the mane will be flushed. I tried again, and the water was still going through a range of browns - the bath tub brown to apple cider.


At first, when the water comes out of the tap, it doesn't look so bad. But, when I fill a glass, it has a not so great hue to it that I wouldn't consider drinkable in the least:


On the right, spring water from a bladder that we originally bought for camping. On the left, the lightest, clearest tap water that I have seen today.


I called again. This time, I got a guy, not as equally nice, but he was decent. He put a report in to the work crew to get someone to flush the system closer to our house, and said he would call when that happened or when he got confirmation that it was going to happen. He didn't call back. Two hours after talking to him, I called again. Another nice woman, and more instructions to flush the pipes by running the bath. I have to figure it out by 4:00 she said, the work crew ends for the day at that point, we are out of luck.