Discolored Tap Water Plagues Homes Across Rye, Rye Brook

Gregg Smith turned on the tap on Christmas Eve to find the water had turned brown. For the Rye resident, it marked the third instance of discolored water in his home in a month — the first appearance coming on Thanksgiving.

January 21, 2025
2 min read
Brown tap water
Photo courtesy Canva

Valve issues and water main breaks in the water provider’s infrastructure have caused discolored tap water intermittently for months in homes across Rye and Rye Brook, according to local officials. 

Gregg Smith turned on the tap in his Roosevelt Avenue home, on Christmas Eve, to find the water had turned brown. For the Rye resident, it marked the third instance of discolored water in his home in a month — the first appearance coming on Thanksgiving.  

“Every tap has brown water, and the toilet [water is] brown, the shower water is brown, the bath water is brown,” Smith told The Record. 

Smith said his neighbors on Roosevelt Avenue and another on Horton Street also experienced a deluge of discolored water. 

Rye City Manager Greg Usry confirmed that he has heard from “several residents” about the issue, and he had referred them to the city’s water provider, Veolia Water Technologies.  

The city gets its water through Veolia, which buys about 35 percent of its water from Westchester Joint Water Works and the other 65 percent from the Aquarion Water Company in Connecticut. 

The issue also has surfaced in Rye Brook — the village receives the bulk of its water supply from Veolia — where Mayor Jason Klein acknowledged that “many residents have been calling concerned about ‘cloudy’ water.”

Veolia was performing system maintenance and hydrant flushing that caused discoloration in the water supply, according to Klein. Rye Brook Village Manager Christopher Bradbury added that a “valve issue” and some “water main breaks” were responsible for the discoloration.  

Yet despite Veolia flushing all of the fire hydrants, “there are still a few homes experiencing discolored water,” Klein wrote in a Jan. 3 email to Rye Brook residents.  

Bradbury said that Veolia was “literally going home by home” since the issue was down to a handful of individual cases.   

A Veolia spokesperson told The Record that the problems in both Rye and Rye Brook have been resolved. Meanwhile, the spokesperson said, the drinking water in both Rye and Rye Brook is being tested regularly and meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards. 

For Smith in Rye, typically it would take about a day for the color to clear up, during which time his family resorted to using bottled water. 

“It’s just completely revolting,” he said. “You don’t want to touch it, you know, you can’t brush your teeth, you can’t take a shower, you can’t run a dishwasher, you can’t run laundry.” 

Following Smith’s latest incident, Veolia sent over a representative and he witnessed workers flush the hydrant in front of his house — which can alleviate iron sediment that accumulates over time, according to Veolia’s website. 

Veolia said in a December email: “While the water remains safe for drinking and other consumption, you may prefer to wait until the water runs clear before drinking or washing clothes or dishes.” 

The water provider suggested running cold water from the lowest point in the house or in the bathtub for several minutes to clear the lines.  

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