BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — The Martin County Water District is flushing water lines as part of a systemwide maintenance program that will continue over the next several weeks.

Flushing started Monday in the Inez, Old Middlefork Road and Old Route 3 areas.

Colby May, regional operations manager for Alliance Water Resources, the contractor managing the water district, said customers may experience low pressure or temporary outages while crews work in their areas.

“We plan to do directional flushing of each area to flush and scour away any accumulated sediment, rust and biofilms,” May said. “This is to help improve water quality across the county and to get ahead and hopefully prevent issues that we’ve had in the past with the brown water throughout the county.”

He also provided a tentative schedule for the work.

This week, crews will flush areas fed by the tanks behind the water treatment plant. Those areas include 573 East Main Street, near the pawn shop, to 2700 Rockcastle Road and to 912 East Main Street, including Middle Fork. The work also includes 762 East Main Street to 3176 Blacklog Road, including Coldwater and Little Blacklog.

Next week, crews plan to flush areas served by the Marcus Wells tank, including Otto Brown, Turkey and Big Sandy Regional Airport. The work will include all of Tomahawk, Milo, Old Route 3 to Buffalo Horn, New Route 3 to the airport, and Turkey to the end of Yellow Creek and to the back side of Big Elk and Hode.

The following week, crews plan to flush areas served by the Buck Creek and Rockcastle tanks. Those areas include Big Elk, Meathouse, South Wolf Creek, North Wolf Creek, Pigeon Roost, Emily Creek, Beauty, Lovely, Route 292 to the Pike County line and Hode.

May said customers outside the flushing areas who experience a loss of water pressure or an outage should contact the Martin County Water District at (606) 298-3885.