Missouri American Water begins its annual flushing operations at the city’s fire hydrants. Christie Barnhart of Missouri American Water said the actual flushing gets underway Monday and is expected to last through the end of November. Barnhart says this helps remove deposits from the pipes.

“Flushing is a way to clean out our water system if you will,” Barnhart said, “because we have many hundreds of miles of pipes under the ground. By operating the hydrants and running the water through the pipe it essentially allows us to get any buildup of minerals off the pipes and out, and that helps maintain the health of our distribution system.”

It also allows crews the opportunity to inspect the pipes.

“This gives our employees a chance to actually operate the hydrants, which lets us know if there’s anything wrong with them, if repairs need to be made, and make sure they’re functioning correctly,” she said.

But Barnhart says cold weather could delay their plans.

“The work is scheduled to run through the end of November,” she said. “That is weather permitting.”

“If we end up seeing temperatures drop below freezing we will probably suspend the program. With the hydrant flushing obviously there’s water discharged on the ground and we would not want to create a situation where we had any slick spots if the temperatures did indeed drop.”

The flushing operations were expected to get underway on Monday.