Greensboro Reschedules Jan. 27 Community Meeting on Discolored Tap Water

City officials will hold a community meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 at East Market Seventh-Day Adventist Church on West Vandalia Road to address ongoing complaints about discolored tap water. The session replaces a December meeting that was canceled because of inclement weather and is intended to explain recent test results and the city's response.

On Jan. 15 a report identified elevated levels of manganese in parts of the Greensboro distribution system, though city officials say the amounts did not exceed environmental standards. The Water Resources Department plans to use the rescheduled meeting to outline monitoring results, explain operational decisions and answer residents' questions about water quality and service reliability.

Water Resources Director Mike Borchers has described continued coordination with the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority and said city actions have focused on minimizing risks to customers. City crews paused routine flushing and swabbing of distribution lines for the winter season and intend to resume those activities when warmer weather returns. Those maintenance pauses are a standard seasonal practice, but residents have linked them to intermittent discoloration in taps.

For many Greensboro households, discolored water is a practical concern that affects everyday tasks like cooking, laundry and bathing. Even when contaminants remain within regulatory limits, visible discoloration erodes public confidence in the system and prompts calls for clearer communication from officials. The forthcoming meeting gives residents a chance to press the Water Resources Department on sampling protocols, timelines for maintenance, and whether additional protections or public advisories are warranted.

The city is asking residents to bring specific questions to the Jan. 27 session so officials can address neighborhood-level concerns. The meeting represents a local forum for accountability: it pairs technical findings from recent tests with an opportunity for public scrutiny of operational choices such as winter pauses in flushing and swabbing.

What comes next for residents is a combination of monitoring and municipal action. Officials will resume distribution-line maintenance when weather allows, continue testing for manganese and other parameters, and present those results at the meeting. For Guilford County residents who have experienced discolored tap water, the Jan. 27 session will be the most immediate opportunity to seek clear answers and timelines from the agencies responsible for Greensboro's drinking water.