11 Investigates: Pittsburgh residents demand answers about brown water

PITTSBURGH — Following

, residents contacted Channel 11 News about their own water supplies.

North Side and Squirrel Hill residents expressed their concerns about brown water to Channel 11’s Catherine Varnum and told her about the responses they’ve received from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

“Sometimes it looks like pure diarrhea coming out of the faucet,” Rose Ferrara-Love of the North Side said.

On Tuesday, Channel 11’s cameras caught water crews flushing water out of the system at the Homewood park, where a youth football league has been practicing and forced to buy bottled water.

PWSA spokesman Brendan Schubert said the brown color is “probably caused by a rash of breaks in the area."

Schubert added the water is safe to consume, but he wasn’t able to explain what's making it brown.

Aside from the quality of the water, Pittsburgh residents also expressed frustrations about the PWSA and the city’s 311 system. Some claimed that when they call to report a water issue, the person on the other line says they’re aware of the issue already and hangs up.

"I have not seen any calls. In these instances, sometimes our customers reach out to the city and not PWSA," Schubert said.

He said the authority is working on a new system to streamline complaints.

After further questioning about why calls to 311 wouldn’t be sent over, Schubert said PWSA does get calls from 311 and that they “work well with them.”

Cox Media Group