SACRAMENTO, Calif. — People in Sacramento are starting to notice their water tasting like dirt, but city officials are not concerned. They are surprised, though.
"What’s unusual this year is that they have started so much earlier in the year than we would normally expect," said Mark Severeid, City Water Quality Superintendent. "Typically we’ll get complaints like this at the end of the summer or early in the fall after we’ve had long periods of hot water and low river flows."
The hot weather and low river flow from the Sacramento and American rivers are part of the reason the water tastes like this. More calls tend to happen during drought years than non-drought years.
"Customers are calling and telling us, 'Oh, my water has an earthy or rusty taste to it.' These kinds of complaints are not uncommon in Sacramento, Severeid said.
He said that it's because certain kinds of bacteria and blue-green algae are starting to grow on the banks of rivers and reservoirs where we get our surface water. They create a compound called geosmin.
"These organisms also create that wonderful smell when you step outside after a rainstorm," he said.
The chemical compounds are not toxic and the city's water is still safe to drink.
"There are no health effects of the earthiness in taste, it’s just that our treatment process doesn’t remove those tastes and odors from the water," Severeid said.
The treatment systems aren't able to remove the geosmin, but the city is working on upgrading the systems.
"People’s tastes and smells are incredibly sensitive to this and much more sensitive than the laboratory equipment we used to measure the concentrations of geosmin in the water," Severeid said.
He mentioned that adjusting the systems to treat the water to not have that earthy taste or musty smell is at the top of their improvements.
While the earthy taste and musty smell are not ideal, Sacramento city water officials are suggesting that people squeeze a lemon or lime in the water or chill it to neutralize it.
"The water is safe," Severeid reiterated. "We acknowledge it is a nuisance, but the water is safe to drink."
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