What Caused the Discoloration
According to the Oct. 5 Town Council meeting, the Town of Oakland shut down its Broadford water plant, which draws from Broadford Lake, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3. This shifted the town’s entire water supply to the smaller Bradley Run (Oakland) plant, which draws from the Youghiogheny River while crews work through the problems behind weeks of trouble with discolored water.
The water has stayed safe to drink, the council was told, but “it has not consistently been the quality that our customers deserve.”
The trouble was confined to the Broadford plant, which normally supplies most of the town’s water; the Oakland plant has stayed stable throughout. Part of the problem traces back to the lake itself. Average iron levels in raw water from Broadford Lake climbed 32 percent from July to August, then another 43 percent from August to September, and by Sept. 24 the lake’s iron measured four times the July average. Manganese spiked too, hitting nearly seven times the 2026 average on Sept. 23. Iron gives water a brownish tint, while manganese can turn it gray or black and leave a musty smell.
The rest of the problem started inside the plant. Filter chlorination ran below normal for several days ahead of both discoloration events, including on Sept. 24 — the same day lake iron peaked — when it stayed under the target range until the afternoon shift came on. Bringing the chlorination back up oxidized the heavy iron quickly, sending discolored water straight into the distribution system. The town issued public notices about the discoloration on Aug. 25 and again on Sept. 25.
Crews have been flushing hydrants since Sept. 24, and the town brought in a chemist on Sept. 25 to review daily test results and recommend changes to chemical dosing and plant operations. Daily filter washes began Sept. 29, the same day the water superintendent reported finished-water turbidity above 0.3 NTU to the Maryland Department of the Environment — a figure that isn’t a hard limit but does require notifying the state. He has stayed in regular contact with MDE ever since. An on-site review of the plant followed on Oct. 2, and when recommendations came back the next morning, the plant was shut down.
Since then, workers have cleaned the clarifier weirs and inside walls and have been running the clarifiers to rebuild the floc blanket, discharging that water as they go. The next step is heavy filter washing once the clarifiers settle, with hope of reaching that point by midweek — though lake discharge limits mean the water must be sampled along the way, which could stretch the timeline. A core sampler for the plant’s filters arrived the day of the meeting; testing the filter material will show whether it needs replacing, and council was told the town will likely need to start seeking funding for replacement filters, “which will be a major expense.”
The town is also rewriting its standard operating procedures so operators can act faster when test results fall outside the expected range, up to and including shutting a plant down, and it plans to seek pricing on continuous digital turbidity monitoring for finished water.
Running the system entirely off the Oakland plant is only a short-term fix, since that plant is smaller and has lower withdrawal limits. Its crews have split their shifts, with the morning crew now starting at 3 a.m. so the plant can produce water longer each day, while closely watching its own clarifier so as not to push it into the same kind of trouble. For now the plant is keeping up with demand, but residents could be asked to conserve if that changes.
During public comment, Helga Mering of 206 Alder Street asked whether home drinking-water filters should be changed more often; she was told the filters may clog sooner than usual because of the extra sediment, so it’s worth checking them more frequently.
In its Aug. 25 notice, the town said the discoloration is an aesthetic problem rather than a health one, that boiling won’t remove iron or manganese, and that laundry should wait until the water runs clear since the minerals can stain clothes.
Timeline Since the Council Meeting
- Oct. 9 – A valve exercised near Dennett Road and Broadford Road, part of contingency planning to see whether part of the system could draw from Garrett County’s Mountain Lake Park system, caused an unexpected leak and sudden pressure drop. That scoured sediment loose in nearby mains, leaving customers on the system’s eastern side with heavily discolored water.
- Oct. 13 – With discoloration persisting, the town issued a boil water advisory, then withdrew it soon after once state regulators determined the system hadn’t actually been compromised. Flushing continued until the water cleared.
- Oct. 16 – The Broadford plant passed bacteriological and turbidity testing and returned to service with state approval.
- Oct. 17 – The town published a formal notice acknowledging that September’s testing had technically violated drinking water rules — 5.3 percent of turbidity readings exceeded the allowed threshold, just above the 5 percent cutoff — and detailing fixes already underway, including a switch in clarifier treatment chemical to DelPAC, added filter media, and new continuous turbidity monitors being wired into the plant’s SCADA system. The notice, also being mailed to customers this week, says the violation posed no known health risk and that the plant remains under close monitoring.
Statement from the Mayor
Asked this week whether the water is safe, the mayor said yes: finished water turbidity has stayed below the legal 0.3 NTU limit since Oct. 3, when the Broadford plant was taken offline for service.
Per the legal language the Maryland Department of the Environment requires in the public notice following a turbidity violation:
“We do not know of any contamination, and none of our testing has shown disease-causing organisms in the drinking water. If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about drinking this water. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.”
Where Things Stand Now
The Broadford plant is back online, and turbidity readings have stayed within legal limits since it returned to service Oct. 16; the town says it is watching the plant closely and will adjust operations as needed. The Bradley Run (Oakland) plant stayed in compliance in September and through October and was the only plant producing water from Oct. 4-15.
The town is continuing to ask customers to conserve water as Broadford ramps back up, though the mayor said the request could be lifted soon if production remains stable.
The town says it isn’t aware of any customers still seeing discolored water, and asks anyone who is to call 301-334-2691 or email info@oaklandmd.gov so crews can flush the mains near them. Running water from multiple faucets can help clear lines if only the cold water is discolored, while a water heater exposed to discolored water should be drained and refilled; filters exposed to heavily discolored water will likely need to be replaced ahead of schedule.
The Mayor and Town Council are set to meet Tuesday to consider a bill credit for customers most affected by the severe discoloration tied to the Oct. 9 valve exercise at Dennett Road and Broadford Road.
Looking ahead, the water department plans to start a twice-yearly conventional flushing program each spring and fall to scour sediment from the system in a controlled way, with the goal of reducing how severe discoloration gets when pressure changes suddenly, such as during fire hydrant use or leaks.
“The Mayor and Town Council, and the Oakland Water Department staff want customers to have confidence in their drinking water. We’re committed to meeting state and federal drinking water regulations,” said Mayor Andrew Sauder. “We will continue to review and update our operating procedures and plan for plant improvements to ensure that our staff and infrastructure can provide the quality of water that our customers in and out of town limits deserve.”
Photo: Broadford Lake by Sarah Myers
