By Robert A. Leishear, PhD, PE, ASME Fellow
June 30, 2025
Living in Aiken, I routinely observe the failures of our government to protect public safety in our water system.
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.” 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.”). However, temperatures are slightly hotter this year than last year (“Weather History in Aiken“), 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“). 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“).
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). 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. 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.
In that report, Aiken stated that we, the Aiken residents, “share the responsibility for protecting [ourselves] and [our] family from lead”. In conclusion, Aiken breaks our mains and then blames residents if they are poisoned.
The Facts of Aiken Water Main Destruction
A parallel unanswered letter was sent only to the Aiken Mayor to provide further technical basis for these claims.
Aiken Keeps Breaking Our Drinking Water Supply (6/27/2025)
Evidence in Figures 1 to 3 below clearly proves that Aiken brown water complaints, water main breaks, and city-owned water system leaks continually rise. With respect to brown water complaints, Aiken is unnecessarily destroying the Aiken water system. That is, brown water is caused by water hammers, as I testified as an Expert Witness in Talbert vs. American Water in 2023. Aiken fails to protect our water system and fails to protect our health.
(Image by Leishear Engineering, LLC) Details DMCA
(Image by Leishear Engineering, LLC) Details DMCA
Data for these three figures was obtained from Donald Moniak (“City of Aiken, Water Main Breaks“).
Zero values in the figures indicate that data was unavailable.
The Coverup Continues
Once again, I suggested to the Aiken Mayor that we meet to work together to improve the Aiken water system. I received no response (“Aiken Coverups and New Scientific Advances in Water Main Breaks“). After sending the above letters, I sent the following unanswered letter to the Mayor of Aiken.
“City Council Workshop? (6/28/2025)
Perhaps you would now be willing to discuss the problems with our water main system. In my [professional] opinion Aiken staff does not have a clear understanding of how they are damaging our water system. My extensive experience and extraordinary education can help them accomplish success with respect to brown water, water main breaks, lead poisoning, and disease transmission.”
Water Hammer as the Brown Water Cause
Aiken is working ‘around the clock’ to fix this problem, but they are a likely cause of this problem in the first place. In my nearly 35 years of water hammer experience, I have learned that sometimes the largest water hammers – and the most damage to water systems – occur during startups of new facilities, similar to the June 25th case considered here.
In such cases, pressures can be near 1,000 pounds per square inch in 100-pound-per-square-inch water systems, which could certainly break loose a lot of rust to create brown water. From the scant information that is publicly available, such a water hammer is possible, but further information is needed from Aiken.
A possible cause was a ‘scheduled shutdown’ ‘to connect the new water plant to the water main’. In fact, ‘the water main at US 1 and the water plant underwent a scheduled shutdown last night [the night of June 24, 2025] to connect the new water plant to the water main (.cityofaikensc.gov/alerts).’ This situation provided the conditions for one of the largest potential water hammers within the Aiken water supply. A Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) was submitted for closure of this water hammer concern, as follows.
FOIA Request (6/28/25)
Please provide SCADA, or other electronic data, plus log book entries, and any other pertinent operations, maintenance, and construction data for June 24-26, 2025 for the new water plant near Highway 1. I would like to see if operations at this plant caused the recent brown water event in Aiken.
Additional detailed information was submitted in a subsequent FOIA to better understand operations at US1 prior to the brown water fiasco.
In my professional opinion, a brown water incident of this magnitude was initiated by a high-pressure water hammer. As soon as the facts are available from Aiken, the sooner this brown water mess can be resolved, where many residents are affected and restaurants have closed (“Aiken water troubles impact local business“).
In this developing story, the Mayor of Aiken stated that they are working ‘continually’, as of 5/27/2025 to correct brown water (“City of Aiken Discolored Water Release“) Even so, an investigation of a possible water hammer related to this significant brown water incident, and other certain brown water incidents, should be investigated. The only obstacle between me and the truth of this brown water fiasco is the Aiken government.
There are many Aiken brown water complaints on the internet. One such complaint provided the following June 26, 2025 photo. Another such complaint noted that Aiken Regional Hospital was affected, but the hospital would not confirm or deny.
(Image by By permission of Nikki Livermore)
Details DMCA
This brown water problem has affected much of Aiken. Brown water has been reported in downtown Aiken, the north side of Aiken, the West side of Aiken, and the south side of Aiken. Sen so, I live on the South side of Aiken, and we have good water quality, i.e. no brown water at all.
Will Aiken Ever Stop Damaging Our Water Mains?
In an effort to address the current brown water situation in Aiken, I sent the following unanswered Letter of Request to the Aiken Mayor and City Manager, including a copy of Figure 1.
“June 25, 2025 – Possible Brown Water Cause (6/28/2025)
Would your staff show me what they did at US 1 on the night of June 24th to remove the water main to the plant from service. If so, we should be able to determine the cause of the current brown water situation, which would prevent future occurrences? High demands cannot explain the fact that there were spikes in brown water complaints during 2022, 2023, and 2025, but not 2024, where summer temperatures were comparable each year. Water hammer from operations at US 1 can provide such an explanation.”
Along with the following letter, a link to this Op Ed was forwarded to the Aiken Mayor, City Manager, and City Council immediately after publication of this Op Ed.
“Please Stop Breaking Our Drinking Water Supply (June 29. 2025)
The following Op Ed was published today, “Aiken, S.C. + Drinking Water = Brown Water + Parallel Health Hazards”. Comments are welcome.
For the past six years, I have asked Aiken officials to stop water hammers. As I have previously published, water hammers create increasing rust, increasing cracks, increasing brown water, and increasing water main breaks; and water hammers contribute to infectious diseases and lead poisoning in water supplies. Yet, you continue to hammer our Aiken water system to cause increasing damage.”
The Lead Question and the June 25, Brown Water Fiasco
I hesitate to address this issue since all of the facts are not yet available, but this issue is too important to ignore. Assuming that a major water hammer started at US 1, that pressure wave had the ability to travel to many parts of the system in seconds. In such a case, lead from lead service lines to older homes could induce lead poisoning into drinking water.
Disclaimer
This Op Ed is based on available information and is subject to change as information is made available. Access to information is hindered. I emailed the City Manger a simple question about how many brown water complaints have been received, and rather than answer, he responded that I should fill out an FOIA request, which can take up to 10 days for response. Guessing what information has been withheld from the public limits a public understanding of how this brown water fiasco unfolded. Aiken refuses to discuss this issue to improve our water system.
As a foremost expert in water main failures, I have raised serious public health concerns, but I am blocked by Aiken government. In fact, I invented peer-reviewed theories to explain brown water creation and water main failures that were misunderstood for the past century. These discoveries should be the backbone of this Aiken investigation but are not.
(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on June 30,2025 in OpedNews.com)
When will city officials ever listen to the voice of reason?
Why not fix the aging and troubled water system first instead of putting in a turn lane, adding sewer service , and building pickleball courts and et. al Generations Park which was pnuilt on land not even within the City limits!
Thank you Robert Leishear for sharing your experience and knowledge on water hammer with City officials. The mystery is why this information has been ignored. Rather than addressing water hammer as a potential cause, the City is doubling down on explanations such as high demand and heat that defy logic.
My personal concern is not so much for the rust except as a symptom of a more serious problem. Knowing the age of some of the pipes and not knowing their proximity to chronicallly leaking old sewer lines, my concerns go to contaminants, primarily lead (for which no safe level exists) and bacteria, whose presence does not necessarily correlate with visible levels of rust.
I had no idea the City was testing at 60 sites per day. Huh. I wonder if the results and locations of these tests are posted someplace for public viewing and if the City is considering testing more sites to get an accurate picture of what City of Aiken water customers are being exposed to.
The hospital can deny answering about their water woes but I was a patient for surgery at Aiken Regional on Thursday.
There certainly was an issue with brown debris filled water at the outpatient surgery prep area. It was the same with the handwashing sink. Repeated flushing of the toilet or pronounced running of water at the sink failed to clear the debris filled brown water. After 2 days of special antibacterial soap baths, with fresh towels at each bathing, and fresh nightgowns and clean sheets to remain bacteria “limited” prior to surgery, having this fowl water provided to wash my hands in the hospital just minutes prior to my surgery was a massive failure in a basic health and safety protocol.
A water hydrant was fully opened outside the ER doors at 7 am and was spewing copious amounts of water through the parking lot.
I have a photo of the nasty brown water filled toilet in my room, which can be seen on Facebook in a post that I made on my page.
My home in Summer Lakes, north of Aiken off Highway 1, never had discolored water.
The City must do better. Residents and water customers must demand better.
Who will pay lost wages for restaurant workers or the food losses incurred by restaurants forced to close? What about all the water customers unable to perform basic home duties such as laundry? Will the City reimburse for bottled water purchases that were needed so their water customers could have clean water to drink during this heat wave?
We can accept this event as standard and acceptable when the City Council, City Manager, and water treatment employees sit at the next council meeting and each drink down a full bottle of the “safe” brown, debris filled, water that offered to Aiken residents and water customers to assure all that this was a non-event. Somehow, I don’t think any one of those representatives will accept that challenge.
Action needed…….. but writeup needs to be simplified and shortened for the lay people.
It should be no surprise at ALL that no one in the government gives a you-know-what. Sad but true. No matter how many people speak at a meeting, how many letters are sent, how many experts publish articles, there will be no justice for Aiken.
Do you really believe anyone on city council, the City Manager or most of the engineering staff even know what water hammer is. Ask anyone that works at the site about the damage caused by water hammer, they all understand the damage caused. Do you believe they really care about the economic losses to downtown business for those four or five days. I guess they think the uproar will settle down shortly and the town will forget until the next “operator error”.
According to leading real estate broker, mayor pro tem and city councilman Ed Girardeau the pipe(s) from the plant on rt 1 to Hampton Ave are more than 100 years old. It would cost $11M to replace them.
Just $1M than the Pascalis Properties!