Sludgy water infuriates downtown tenant

A Winnipeg woman says she is fed up with discoloured water — sometimes the colour of coffee — that has flowed from the taps of her downtown apartment for the past five months.

Paulette Furoy says the tap water in her Kennedy Street apartment, near Central Park, often comes out yellowish, but on some days it comes out dark brown.

"It's sludgy, it smells bad," Furoy told CBC News.

"It's really sour-smelling, and there's no chlorination smell at all."

Furoy said she has called the City of Winnipeg's 311 hotline a number of times, only to be given a different explanation each time for the dirty water.

"Skunk. Yeah, it's really, really nasty," she said. "It's still coming out brown."

A City of Winnipeg official told CBC News on Monday that crews will inspect the plumbing at the building and take a water sample to determine where the problem could be coming from.

Tim Shanks, a field service operations engineer with the city's water services division, said the cause of the discoloured water there is not clear at this time.

There have been approximately 1,900 calls for service regarding discoloured water since June — a number that Shanks said is above average.

Earlier, city officials said they had not received any service requests regarding discoloured water at that address for the past 10 months.

However, they added that 311 only makes a request for service if a complainant takes several steps to clear the water and waits two to three hours before calling back.

Daniel McIntyre Coun. Harvey Smith said he has contacted Furoy and is looking into her case.