Living in Aiken, I routinely observe the failures of our government to protect public safety in our water system. Today, I fight once again through the Press, where OpEd News is frequently the only weapon for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press to fight our Aiken government to protect us.
From June 25, 2025 through June, 29, 2025 (and continuing), widespread complaints about 'brown water' were reported by Aiken residents. By reading local newspapers, everything seems to be okay, but I fiercely disagree. The Aiken Standard reported that "Discolored Water Is Still a Problem for Aiken Customers", click here. After four days, Aiken is still flushing out the muck from water mains but not addressing the real problems.
Heat has Mistakenly been Blamed for Brown Water
Heat has been blamed as a primary cause of recent discolored water ("Discolored water reported throughout Aiken as extreme heat takes toll", click here). However, temperatures are slightly hotter this year than last year ("Weather History in Aiken", click here), when brown water was not so large a problem (see Figure 1). In short, surges of brown water complaints drastically increased in August 2022, July 2023 and May 2025, but not during the summer of 2024. Temperature and hot weather are clearly not a driver for brown water increases. Water hammer provides an explanation for these three incidents and smaller incidents throughout the years, where such hammers are created by operating pumps and valves.
A new water system was being placed in service, and a water hammer during startup may have blasted corrosion debris loose throughout the system. That is, a possible cause of Aiken brown water on June 25, 2025, was operator error, rather than weather or infrastructure improvements. Confirmation data is unavailable to the public at present. Aiken staff may not even be aware of the possibility or occurrence of a water hammer, since hammers are frequently not heard when pipes are securely fastened and cannot bang when hammered.
Facing Our Government Again
Accordingly, I sent the following unanswered letter to the Aiken Mayor and all members of the City Council.
We have serious problems that are not being addressed for the Aiken water supply. Please note the conclusion below: 'In conclusion, Aiken breaks our mains and then blames residents if they are poisoned.'
Aiken Brown Water and Parallel Health Hazards (6/7/2025)
Although brown water in the Aiken drinking water supply is generally considered to be reasonably safe, water hammers that generate rust in our drinking water continue in Aiken, and those same water hammers endanger our drinking water safety. Aiken is spending tax dollars to fix the symptoms of health problems and health problems accelerate. Aiken needs to stop damaging our water system to protect our health.
On June 23, 2025, an Aiken City Council meeting promoted more money for unidirectional flushing, which effectively washes away rust in water mains. This method flows water into fire hydrants and flushes rust out through the next closest fire hydrant. Aiken is even installing more hydrants to increase the flow rates between some hydrants to remove more rust from our water mains.
Published by commercial water companies, brown water is claimed to not present a health hazard, since iron in rust is not a health hazard, and small quantities of detrimental manganese in rust are not usually present in high enough concentrations during brown water events to affect health. In other words, the brown water problem can be washed out of sight, but the acceleration of brown water creation hammers forward.
Peer reviewed publications and supporting scientific research prove that Aiken is not addressing the primary cause of rust in water mains, where water hammer creates brown water, or rust, in water mains ("Water Hammer Causes Water Main Breaks", click here). Basically, the operations of water pumps, industrial valves and fire hydrants cause high-pressure shock waves in water mains that travel throughout the city to crack water mains and generate rust in those cracks, and subsequent hammers disperse brown water to residents.
Until we stop the water main breaks in Aiken, we will have more cracks, more rust, more brown water, and more water main breaks ("Aiken, S.C. Officials Destroy Our Water System and Endanger Our Lives and Health", "Money is Gone in My Home Town of Aiken, and the Water Main Breaks Keep on Coming", and "Water Main Breaks Will Continue in Aiken", click here).
Far more importantly, water main cracks increase lead poisoning and infectious diseases in drinking water ("Our Water Mains Contaminate Us with E. Coli, Lead and Copper - Illness and Death Follow", peer reviewed, click here). Aiken officials have joined other cities to refuse to further investigate and stop these significant health hazards ("A One-Man-Fight Against Small Town and U.S. Water Main Breaks").
A 2024 City of Aiken Water Report [that was a flyer delivered to customers] described water treatment before water enters water mains (Click Here). Also, Aiken tests and [reports]' 'drinking water once per year or less, but Aiken tests 60 locations daily per the Aiken Mayor, but Aiken does not specifically check water from water mains after known water hammer events. Also, there are 22,000 connections to the water supply, and Aiken does not yet know where all of the lead pipes are located for customers. At present, lead contamination levels throughout Aiken are not known. In other words, we do not know when all of our water is safe or not.
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