Prospect Road is a Westport gem.
With its stately homes, old growth trees, and the gardens and greenery of John and Melissa Ceriale, no one would confuse the Greens Farms neighborhood with the Third World.
But when the Ceriales turned on the tap a few days ago, after a summer away, the water was brown.
Half an hour later, it had not cleared.
They were not alone. Turns out their neighbors had brown water since July 4th.
Their toilets and laundry were stained. They could not shower. They spent a lot of money on bottled water.
Discolored water on Prospect Road.
Neighbors alled Aquarion — repeatedly. The water company’s responses included:
- “Check your water tank.”
- “Just run your faucets. This happens to my vacation home in Rhode Island as well.”
- “Is there construction in your area?”
- “The fire department may be testing.”
- “Do you live near a golf course?”
Workers flushed the hydrants and lines three times. Each time they said they tested the water; it was all good.
Wesptort Deputy Fire Chief Michael Kronick was very helpful, trying to reach Aquarion engineers.
Finally, one of the Ceriales’ neighbors found personal contact information for Aquarion’s CEO and vice president of operations. She called and emailed.
That seemed to get some response. The other day, workers reappeared.
“That’s just not right,” the neighbor said — referring both to Aquarion’s lack of urgency and solutions all summer, and the need to involve the C-Suite.
Fortunately, Melissa notes, the flowers and plants in her gorgeous garden don’t mind brown water.
But the rest of Prospect Road does.
Don’t leave us in suspense? What was the cause? Is the problem fixed?
“There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe … the sun in the heavens and Dan Woog’s blog 06880.”
Mark Twain
Very nice. I always advocate once you have tried normal channels/escalations, call up and email the CEO of the company. 9 times out of 10 the issue will receive attention and be resolved (and their actions will speak volumes about the type of company they are). Just make sure you know your audience and write a concise fact-based email.
I too had issues with Aquarion this summer and it was perplexing how unorganized they are. I ended up getting the answers I needed from the Westport Fire Department, who explained a pressure issue was attributed to several construction projects, and that it was actually impacting their firefighting capabilities (they put mitigations in-place). How Aquarion doesnt notify customers, post something on their website, phone system, or even inform their employees, led to multiple days of troubleshooting, digging things up, running around in circles, etc, that could have been avoided.
PS. Don’t forget that Eversource acquired Aquarion.
update: Aquarion installed a blowout at the end of the street to flush out the main – which to my understanding is what needs to be replaced at the end of the day. Our main was installed in the 50’s if not earlier. Wondering if this had anything to do with the other water main break around the corner earlier this week. I believe Aquarion is now going to scope the line (which needs to be outsourced to another company) and they may need to reline the pipe with a plastic coating which may buy them time while probably waiting for the permit process with state & town to replace the main. I now know way too much about water lines in town.
Would have been nice if Melissa had given us the name and email of that CEO so others who are ignored by the monopoly water provider could get attended to when needed.