Fire hydrant failures cause brown water in Winter Springs

A city contractor was working in the Oak Forest neighborhood in Winter Springs on Monday and needed water from a city fire hydrant for a project rehabilitating older pipes. When they opened up the hydrant, the break away coupler “sheared off,” resulting in water gushing everywhere. 

“Some of our fire hydrants are quite old, and the fire hydrant broke and the water started gushing out of that,” Winter Springs Utility Director Bilal Iftikhar told commissioners at the Monday night City Commission meeting. “They fixed that, and moved on to the next one, and that one broke as well. So two fire hydrants.”

Iftikhar said the city’s water lines never lost water pressure, which would have required the city to put out a boil water notice. But it did cause the pressure to fluctuate, which can loosen the sulfur and iron coating the water lines and result in brown water. 

Winter Springs did issue a Discoloration Notice, telling residents that, “you may observe some discoloration of the water in your home or business within that area due to the isolation activities. If you see discolored water at your tap, please allow your faucet to run until the discoloration clears.” 

The city also notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Seminole County. City commissioners heard from several citizens at Monday’s meeting about the water. 

“What can we do to be proactive and check all of them?” asked Commissioner Victoria Bruce. “This could be catastrophic if there were a fire at that house and that hydrant did not work.”

Iftikhar said the city has between 1,100 and 1,200 hydrants in total. He said it’s been at least three years since all the hydrants were flushed and checked. He said he expects to bring it back to the Commission as an agenda item because the city will need to hire a contractor to conduct the checks, as well as repaint the hydrants.

“So we’re gonna go ahead and get (a contractor) now to look into the flushing of the fire hydrants?” Commissioner Cade Resnick asked. “We’ve not been doing this annually?”

“No, we have not been,” Iftikhar said. 

“Should we have been?” Resnick asked.

“We should have been, yes,” Iftikhar replied. 

Winter Springs does not have its own fire department. The city contracts with the Seminole County Fire Department for fire protection and EMS. Now, Seminole County commissioners are taking notice of the issue. 

At Tuesday’s county meeting, Chairman Jay Zembower said he wants county staff to work with Winter Springs staff. 

“To make sure the folks in Winter Springs have the capability of receiving fire fighting services should they need a fire hydrant,” Zembower said. “We are the oversight body of ensuring compliance with operating fire hydrants. We don’t take care of them, but we have the authority to make sure they are taken care of.”

Commissioner Amy Lockhart went a step further, saying issues with the City of Winter Springs “bubble to the top” a lot right now. She asked the county attorney to brief commissioners on what kind of oversight the county has over the city. 

“Especially in the life, health, safety area,” Lockhart said. “It would be great to know exactly which back to pat and which throat to choke.”

On Wednesday, Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said the City Commission should have a contract for fire hydrant work in hand by the next city meeting. 

The estimated cost: $74,000.

“They’ve actually been working on this for some time,” McCann said. “March 18, the work will start.”