My parents used to have brown water, now and again. A truck
would rumble down the road, and shake the rust off the
bottom of the water main. Oh, well. We'd let the water run
out, and it would clear after a while.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"robb" wrote in message
m...
"robb" wrote in message
...

[recap of OP]
Problem 1.
Faucet water runs red/brown (think red clay) about 10
minutes after
tree service drives their (big) crane truck across corner
of yard
to the driveway.

Problem 2:
So now i want to find some proof evidence the water line
is
broken/cracked or not.


Thanks to all of your responses on the water problem.

What came to pass....
I collected several cups of the red/brown water. I showed it
to the
workers and they say , "not our problem" (suspiciously
dismissive).
I contacted tree service manager about the water going red
15 minutes
after the crane pulled in driveway.

They sent someone out to look. Showed him the water and ran
some out
of the tap. Also pointed out that the sinks, tubs and
toilets do not
have rust stains so this is not an on going problem. He
admitted that
sometimes the workers will do things like drop the crane
hook/ball
weight, run over meters or even drop trunks on yard etc but
he looked
all over the area and did not see any evidence of this.

A neighbor had informed me that the "fold out crane boom"
bumped a
large (60 ft) oak that happens to be growing close to the
water line
run. The tree guy said either the truck or bumping the tree
could have
shaken the line enough to loosen some rust in the line.

He suggested running water for a while to see if it clears
up, and to
keep watch for water springing up out of yard or running
back into
the meter box.

We also learned from city service that the static water
pressure can
be any where from 35 - 80 psi and that we have a low
pressure service
water meter installed on our municipal water line because
we have the
older iron pipes. If we want high pressure meter service we
need to
replace our home service line with an approved high
pressure line.

Conclusion .....
Water cleared up after running for about 20 minutes
continuous and we
have not seen any more discoloration nor signs of leaks in
the yard.
The water pressure is stable and within acceptable range
though on the
low side.

Thanks again for your advice and help,
robb