Why Is Shreveport Water So Murky?

SHREVEPORT, LA - Residents in many neighborhoods in Shreveport are dealing with murky water. In some areas the water is cloudy and a bit green. But in other areas the water looks brown.

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Experts Explain the Problem with Shreveport Water

William Daniel, Director of Water and Sewer for Shreveport tells KEEL News his employees "are leaving no stone unturned in trying to figure out the problem."
Daniel says one sink might have the brownish color and the next sink might not. He says "we think it's something in the distribution system, but it obviously starts at the water plant." He says:

We are doing a thorough evaluation of every single process of every chemical that we we use. We are testing the water. In some places we have seen an increase in magnesium. Some places we've seen an increase in iron. Any of those minerals in the water can react with the pipes.

He says they took out the rust inhibitor about a month ago to see if that could help the system and that seems to be when the water changes started happening. That inhibitor has been put back online.

Daniel says most of our pipes are old and that is likely partially to blame for the discoloration residents are seeing. Daniel says the water is safe to drink.

What Is Being Done to Fix the Problem?

Daniel says a water quality team is checking out the entire system today to check out all the processes. He says they will make some recommendations for improvements. There will be a meeting on Wednesday to talk about what changes can be made to improve the water.

Where Are Complaints Coming From?

Daniel says most of the complaints are coming from the Broadmoor neighborhood. But he has gotten complaints from other parts of the city. Daniel adds:

This is a big deal to us. We want to have clean, safe, aesthetically pleasing drinking water and it's certainly not aesthetically pleasing right now.

He does encourage residents to report problems with the water to his staff by calling 673-7600 to report the problem. "The more information we collect about this the more the public lets us know, the more we'll learn and be able to resolved this problem."