MULBERRY, Ark. — After days of leaks in the water system, the City of Mulberry is asking residents to boil water.
"Saturday, the water was running all the way down the ditches here. So it was pretty bad," says one resident living off of Main and 5th Street in Mulberry.
On Saturday, the city experienced multiple leaks throughout their water system. City leaders say one of the storage towers was not functioning properly, causing hammering, a shockwave that causes breaks in pipes and leaks.
Mulberry water officials say there were a total of seven leaks. And five have already been repaired using a circle clamp.
Mulberry Mayor Gary Baxter says the boil order sent out to residents was only a precaution and optional.
"We had some brown water, but that is not because anything got into our system because it didn't. The color is caused by manganese. That manganese is just natural," adds Baxter.
Baxter says the boil order could be lifted as early as tomorrow. In the meantime they are working towards getting the funding for new pipes in some areas.
"We are working to get some funding for the residents to get paid for the replacement of pipes from our main line to their housing, because that's where there could be some galvanized pipes that people put in many years ago," Baxter said.
Baxter tells 5NEWS the city has applied for multiple state and federal grants to fix those pipes.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.