The head of the Steinbach Water Works Department says tests of the city's water distribution system last week generally went well. Mike Heppner says the tests, which involved putting high volumes of water through the system in various parts of the city, did shake loose some iron sediment from the walls of the pipes.

"There were a couple of sites where we had some sediment show up. We did some extensive flushing in those areas to clear it up following the flow test."

Heppner says they will probably do some additional flushing next month.

"We did recognize that some areas will need some additional flushing at a later date. Right now it's good but, because of some of the iron sediment that we saw coming out, we'll be organizing a better flush at a later time, probably September hopefully, particularly in the South Park area around Clearwater Street, that could benefit from a better flush."

Heppner says the sediment is in the pipes from some years ago, before equipment was installed in the water treatment plant to remove iron particles.

The high volume water flow tests last week were done to gather data for the design of a second water treatment plant to be built in the next two years at the corner of Park and Keating Roads.