Seeking to improve drinking water quality, Wildwood commissioners Monday night approved three design contracts totaling $273,586 to develop plans to replace old steel water mains.
The projects in older parts of the city are expected to take up to three years.
Halff Engineering, the city’s on-call engineering company, will design the projects and supervise construction.
Two projects involve replacement of eight-inch water mains on Old Wire Road between Huey and Denham streets and between Cleveland Avenue and U.S. 301.
The third project will upgrade mains and loop dead-end water lines in the area of Stanley Avenue and Magnolia Street.
Design, which requires mapping the lines, is expected to take six to eight months with construction over the next two fiscal years.
“This is not something we can just take a vote to do,” said Mayor Ed Wolf. “These things have to be designed.”
Last fall, Wildwood offered residents suffering with discolored water a temporary 40 percent discount on utility bills.
Lee Coffey, who lives in an older part of the city, brought plastic bottles of his yellowed tap water to a commission meeting and asked if anyone wanted to drink it.
Nobody volunteered but Utilities Director Mark O’Dell assured Coffey the water was safe to drink.
To address the problem, city crews flushed 175 fire hydrants and disconnected a new water line because heavier flow from that line was dislodging rust particles in older pipes.