Important Information Regarding the Taste and Odor of Your Drinking Water

UPDATED 8/17/2026

Dear valued Customer,

You may have recently noticed an earthy, musty, or muddy taste or smell when turning on your tap. We want to explain why this is happening, assure you about your water quality, and share what we are doing to address it.

What Is Causing the Taste and Odor?

The change in taste and smell is due to a natural, seasonal algal bloom in our source water lake. When algae reproduce in warm, sunlit water, they release natural organic chemicals. These compounds are stable tertiary alcohols that do not easily break down during standard water treatment processes, allowing them to pass through into tap water.

Note: Although there are many taste and odor causing compounds, the most common are:

Geosmin
2-Methylisoborneol (MIB)

How Do These Compounds Cause Taste and Odor?

Human senses are exceptionally sensitive to these compounds. Most people can detect Geosmin and MIB at extremely low levels—as low as a few parts per trillion (equivalent to a single grain of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool). When you drink or heat the water, these compounds vaporize easily, traveling quickly from the back of your throat up into your nasal passages, creating a strong perception of mud, damp soil, or mold.

Is the Water Safe to Drink?

Yes, despite their potent and unpleasant smell, algal taste and odor compounds like geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) are completely non-toxic and harmless to human health at the microscopic concentrations found in drinking water.

100% Safe: Geosmin and MIB are completely harmless and pose no health risk.
Regulated Quality: Your drinking water continues to meet or exceed all federal and state drinking water safety standards.

This issue is strictly aesthetic (affecting taste and odor) and does not affect the safety or biological purity of the water.

What We Are Doing

Our Water Operations Team is actively taking steps to minimize these aesthetic impacts:

Optimizing our treatment processes to reduce compound levels before water leaves our plants.
Continuously testing and monitoring water quality at the source and throughout our treatment/distribution systems.
Directly treating our source water (Lake Woodmoor) with NSF Certified (drinking water safe) oxidation chemicals to reduce or eliminate algae growth (Treatment applied on August 10th - We are in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of this treatment).
Flushing fire hydrants in our distribution system to draw in newer water as water quality improves.

Because these compounds are aesthetic, taste and odor levels may fluctuate depending on weather conditions, lake temperatures, and water usage in your neighborhood.

Helpful Tips for Home

If you find the taste or odor objectionable, here are a few quick ways to improve your experience until these conditions subside:

Chill your water: Storing tap water in a clean pitcher in the refrigerator significantly reduces the earthy odor and improves taste.
Add lemon or fruit: A slice of lemon, lime, or cucumber masks subtle earthy notes.
Use a carbon pitcher filter: Standard activated carbon filters (such as Brita or PUR) effectively reduce Geosmin and MIB.
Adding scents or deodorizers to your laundry

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this seasonal natural occurrence. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact us.