Maybe you’ve noticed it.
The yellow-tinted water that used to come out of the tap is now crystal clear for customers served by Fort Lauderdale’s new water plant, city officials say.
The yellow disappeared when the new $666 million Prospect Lake Clean Water Center became fully operational in early October, said city spokeswoman Ashley Doussard.
City officials have sent out the word to hotels around Fort Lauderdale that it’s time to tear up the little cards placed in hotel rooms to reassure guests that the yellow water was safe to drink.
Mayor Dean Trantalis says the cards greeting visitors to Fort Lauderdale had been around for more than a decade.
“Too long,” he said. “This was a commitment we should have made years ago. And finally we accomplished that goal of providing clear, clean, plastic-free water to the community.”
Trantalis says people can now rest assured that the yellow water problem is a thing of the past.
Some longtime water customers said they’d believe it when they saw it — including Ralph Zeltman, a retired county engineer who lives in Imperial Point in northeast Fort Lauderdale.
But now he’s a believer, partly thanks to his cat Gabriel.
One day in mid-October, he noticed the water in the cat’s bowl had lost its traditional yellow tinge.
“That’s how I was able to tell the water wasn’t yellow anymore,” said Zeltman, who serves on Fort Lauderdale’s Infrastructure Advisory Board. “It used to turn yellow and now it’s clear.”
Ralph Zeltman says his cat Gabriel, shown Tuesday outside his home in Fort Lauderdale’s Imperial Point neighborhood, helped tip him off that the city’s yellow tap water was finally gone. The cat’s water bowl was Zeltman’s first sign that the water from his tap was no longer yellow. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Earlier this year, Zeltman told the Sun Sentinel the water coming out of the new plant would indeed be clear, but might turn yellow after traveling through the city’s network of old, unlined cast-iron pipes.
Doussard says Zeltman and other experts who had warned the water might remain discolored due to old iron pipes were wrong.
“The water is clear,” she said.
In a previous interview, expert Fred Bloetscher told the Sun Sentinel the city might have yellow water coming out of the tap for several months due to aging underground pipes.
On Thursday, he praised the city for keeping the water clear as it moves through the sprawling network of pipes.
“If the water is clear, it would indicate that the operations staff is doing an excellent job in balancing the water to prevent corrosion,” Bloetscher said.
The new plant replaces Fiveash, a 1950s-era plant that served Fort Lauderdale and surrounding communities for more than 70 years.
Prospect Lake Clean Water Center uses advanced nanofiltration and ion-exchange technologies that can strip out tannins that gave the water from Fiveash its yellow tint. Tannins are natural organic compounds that are harmless to consume but can turn the water yellow.
After noticing his own tap water was no longer turning yellow, Zeltman said he wondered if that was true for customers in Wilton Manors, Oakland Park and other cities served by the new water plant.
But Fort Lauderdale officials say every single water customer served by the new water plant is now getting clear water with no discoloration at all.
“All indication is that color is no longer in the city’s system,” Doussard told the Sun Sentinel. “The city checked with the cities of Wilton Manors and Oakland Park. Both confirmed clear water.”
After a monthlong transition phase, the new plant came fully online on Oct. 8, Doussard said.
“That was when the city stopped producing water from its older treatment plant,” she said. “Now that the water is clear, we do not expect any reappearance.”
Fort Lauderdale resident Ralph Zeltman says his cat’s water bowl, shown here on Tuesday, was his first indicator that the water from his tap was no longer yellow. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The hotels are thrilled, according to Lisa Namour, general manager at Bahia Mar Fort Lauderdale Beach – A DoubleTree by Hilton.
For more than a decade, the resort had a little card in all 288 hotel rooms letting guests know the yellow water was nothing to worry about.
“People would ask us about the yellow water,” Namour said. “You could mostly see it in the toilets.”
Commissioner Steve Glassman said he suspects most of the hotels have said good riddance to the cards alerting hotel guests about the yellow water.
“I don’t think it needs that much encouragement,” he said. “I think they’re happy to get rid of them.”
That was certainly the case at the Bahia Mar resort, Namour said.
Each notice was gleefully tossed in the trash after the city sent out word there was no need for them anymore.
“It was a great thing,” Namour said. “It represents progress and a step in the right direction. I know my fellow hoteliers feel the same way.”
Clear water is good for tourism, said Ina Lee, owner of Travelhost Magazine of Greater Fort Lauderdale and founder of the Beach Council of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.
“Bottom line, it’s certainly a boost for tourism now that we have clear water,” Lee told the Sun Sentinel. “Kudos to the city for building the new water plant.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan