Bainbridge public works crews are working to clean out water pipes in the Wing Point Way area Tuesday after a construction crew tapped a hydrant while doing a road reconstruction project and fouled the drinking water in the neighborhood.

Residents along Ferncliff Avenue east to Cherry and Dingley avenues and south to Wingpoint Drive, have been warned to not drink tap water or do laundry until the water clears.

City officials said the water should be clear by Tuesday evening.

According to the city, a contractor working on the Wing Point Way reconstruction project used a fire hydrant without the city’s permission and the high water flow caused iron precipitate to be picked up from the bottom of the pipes.

Details were immediately sparse on the events surrounding the water problem.

City spokeswoman Kellie Stickney could not say how many city water customers were impacted by the tainted water.

She said the hydrant was used by a contractor Monday, and that the city became aware of the issue around 8:30 or 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Stickney said the city was alerted to the problem by residents in the area Tuesday morning.

She could not say if the problem arose because workers on the Wing Point Way project were not aware that they could not tap hydrants or if workers had been advised against unauthorized use of hydrants in the area but did so anyway.

No testing has been done to determine the level of contamination in the water, but Stickney said the city’s experts have said there is no health risk.

Stickney said since they know the cause of the problem, the city is confident that a health risk does not exist. The city decided to be “extra cautious” and ask residents to not drink water.

“Other than our normal routine testing, no additional testing is needed because we are confident of what caused the issue,” Stickney said. “This activity did not cause contaminants to be introduced into the system, it merely upsets sediment that already existed in the system.”

Residents in the Winslow area started posting about water problems in the area on Sunday evening, and the number of posts increased through Sunday with residents complaining of water that looked rusty, or like weak tea or cream soda. Others reported gold-colored specks in the water and complained of discolored water, rusty-looking water that tasted very metallic or like chlorine.

One resident, according to her Facebook post, asked the city to test her water to be on the safe side “especially since my family and I have been drinking, bathing, and doing laundry in this water and no one had told us not to.”

The resident said the city official she spoke to said “she took my number and said she’d get back to me.”