Hydrant flushing will begin on April 8th. We'll flush for a week and then take 2 weeks off for Easter and resume on April 29th.  We plan to follow the normal route which is posed onlne at flushing.topsfieldpublicworks.org

Flushing removes sediment from the water mains, identifies hydrants in need of repair and checks system fire flows. Customers will have rust colored or black water while the water mains are flushed and for a period afterwards. The work will be conducted on weeknights from 9 PM until 1 AM to minimize the disruption. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Manganese levels in areas being flushed will be higher than normal and may exceed levels described in the drinking water advisory issued in November 2013. Do not drink, cook or make formula with the discolored water. Avoid using hot water while the cold water is discolored. Doing so will allow sediment to accumulate in your hot water tank and will take longer for the hot water to clear.

This is the first round of flushing to be done since the water treatment plant started operation.  It will probably take a couple of rounds of flushing before all of the sediment is removed from the distribution mains.

The Town appropriated $10.4 million on June 20, 2017 for the construction of a water treatment plant and associated piping.  Substaintial completion of the project is expected in January 2019 which will be followed by several weeks of testing.  We're planning on using the plant to produce water by the end of February 2019.  Progress updates will be posted on a regular basis.

March Update: The plant is now fully operational and has been treating all of the Town's water since March 6th.  It will take several cycles of hydrant flushing to clear out the sediment in the water mains but manganese is no longer being pumped into the distribution system.

We conduct hundreds of water quality tests each year. Results are now available on our Water Quality Site which includes information about which water sources are in use. The site has been under development for several years and more functionality will be added as time permits.