Rust-Colored Water Frustrates Residents as Crockett Works to Replace Aging Lines

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – Videos and photographs of rust-colored water flowing from faucets in Crockett periodically make their way onto social media, and City Administrator John Angerstein said he understands why residents are frustrated.

He is frustrated, too.

“I completely get the frustration on the part of the residents,” Angerstein said. “I’m frustrated when my water also comes out red. I live here, we all do, and experience these same problems.”

Angerstein said the city is working to address the aging infrastructure behind many of the problems, while also cautioning that not every report of reddish or brown water originates in a city water main.

In many parts of Crockett, particularly older sections of town, cast-iron water lines can accumulate sediment over time. Changes in pressure can disturb that material and send discolored water through the system.

“A lot of times it may be transferring from lake to wells, it may be moving from one pumping system to another, or if there are pressure fluctuations in town,” Angerstein said.

Public Works responded by increasing flushing in the downtown area in an effort to clear the discoloration before it traveled farther through the system.

“We initiated our downtown flushing, trying to capture that reddish water before it spreads throughout town,” Angerstein said.

Many of the areas where the city repeatedly encounters the problem are also areas with some of Crockett’s oldest water infrastructure.

“Most of it is centered around areas that are in the older part of town that still have a lot of older pipes, particularly cast-iron pipes,” Angerstein said. “It stirs up a lot of sedimentation. Those cast-iron pipes put off a lot of sedimentation, and a lot of times it will sit in the bottom of the pipes until there’s a pressure change or some type of fluctuation that stirs it up in the water.”

Angerstein said the city has increased flushing and changed its disinfection procedures in accordance with recommendations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

But ultimately, he said, much of the recurring problem cannot be permanently eliminated until old lines are replaced.

“We’re doing the best we can, considering that we have really old infrastructure,” Angerstein said. “A lot of this is going to continue being a problem until we get these pipes changed out.”

Some of that work is already happening.

Angerstein pointed particularly to the downtown square, the Goliad corridor heading east and the area around Seventh Street as places where aging lines have caused repeated concern.

The city replaced water mains along Seventh Street during the past year, he said, and additional work is planned for 2027.

The Messenger has previously reported on the city’s planned water-line improvements along the Houston and Goliad corridors. Angerstein said those projects are now moving through engineering and approval with TCEQ and the Texas Water Development Board.

“We expect to go to bid and select a contractor within the next couple of months, with construction starting the first of next year,” Angerstein said.

The difficulty, he said, is that Crockett is trying to address several expensive infrastructure needs at the same time, including water treatment, wastewater treatment and the replacement of aging cast-iron mains.

“It’s not like we know about these issues and are not addressing them,” Angerstein said. “Right now, we’re having a lot of these areas of concern that all need to be addressed at the same time.”

Finding outside funding has become a major part of that effort.

Angerstein said the City Council is considering another possible funding opportunity of up to $10 million, but it would require a 10% local match.

That means Crockett would have to find approximately $1 million locally in order to leverage the full $10 million.

“That’s where we’re prioritizing our time right now, to address those issues,” Angerstein said.

For Angerstein, the complaints are not something happening somewhere outside City Hall.

City employees live in Crockett, use the same water system and encounter many of the same frustrations, he said.

“We’re fully invested to come up with the solutions to replace those lines,” Angerstein said. “We don’t want to see them as much as everybody else either.”

Angerstein also urged residents not to immediately assume every case of reddish water comes from a city main.

Recent calls provided examples of why.

In some cases, Public Works employees arrived to find the city water running clear while discoloration remained inside a particular residence. Nearby homes did not have the same problem.

Older homes can have their own cast-iron plumbing, Angerstein said, creating the possibility of rust and sediment originating on the homeowner’s side of the meter.

Water heaters can also be responsible.

“We had one of those where their hot water was red and their cold water was not,” Angerstein said. “So we were able to isolate it to their water heater.”

That is one reason Angerstein encouraged residents experiencing discolored water to contact Crockett Public Works rather than simply continuing to run water through their faucets.

If the discoloration is coming from the city system, Public Works can locate the nearest hydrant and flush the main until the water clears.

“If it’s coming from the city, then you immediately need to call Public Works so we can flush the main out in front of the area that has the red water, whether it be your business or your house,” Angerstein said.

Residents should not continue running large amounts of water inside the home while the city main is still discolored, he said.

“Don’t continue flushing it because all you’re doing is pulling more of that red water into your home until we get the outside main flowing clear,” Angerstein said.

Once Public Works has cleared the city line, homeowners can then open outside spigots to help draw the remaining discolored water from the private plumbing between the main and the house.

Those steps also give city workers an opportunity to determine whether the problem appears to be on the municipal side or inside the residence.

“Whenever you’re experiencing it, call Public Works,” Angerstein said. “Public Works can come out and see if it’s our problem, and if it’s on the resident side, then we can try to help isolate it and see what’s causing it and give some better direction to it.”

Angerstein said the city continues to monitor Crockett’s drinking water and maintains sampling points throughout the system.

“Our water is safe,” Angerstein said. “We monitor it daily. We pull samples throughout town. We have 40 different flush points that we flush and monitor by pulling samples and sending them off to the labs.”

He acknowledged, however, that seeing visibly discolored water coming from a faucet is unpleasant regardless of whether testing shows the water system remains within safety requirements.

“Nobody wants to see, smell or drink the red water full of rust,” Angerstein said. “We need to get that cleared out.”

If testing or another condition showed Crockett’s water was unsafe to drink, Angerstein said the city would issue the appropriate boil-water notice.

For now, he said the recurring discoloration is another symptom of an infrastructure system the city knows needs substantial work.

“We’re fully aware of it and equally frustrated,” Angerstein said. “We’re committed to finding solutions to try to replace this infrastructure.”

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]