Commerce and Maysville water customers will be happy to learn that the smelly, dirt-tasting tap water they’ve experienced for a week will be gone this weekend.
The Commerce watershed lake experienced its annual spring “temperature inversion,” creating odor and taste issues. The water remained safe to drink, but its taste could deter most folks from taking more than a sip. The inversion brings causes sediment to mix with the water, causing its taste and odor to deteriorate.
“The plant is okay,” said Bryan Harbin, director of the city’s water and sewer operations Friday morning. “We’re in the process of flushing hydrants now and should finish that either today or tomorrow.”
The bad taste and odor typically lasts three to five days, according to Harbin.
“It has been unusually bad this year,” he noted. “It was due to the big temperature swings last week.”
Harbin said water officials noticed the problem on Friday, April 24, at the plant. A week later, the plant was cleared, and it became a matter of flushing the old water out of city water lines.
Harbin notified the EPD of the problem, just in case it heard complaints. Sure enough, the EPD got a complaint from Maysville, which buys city water. The EPD visited the plant on Wednesday, April 29.
“They said we were doing everything we could do,” Harbin said. “It (the taste and odor) was still lingering, but it was okay at the plant.”
The same situation sometimes occurs in the fall as the lake water cools down, but the problem is not as severe as during the spring temperature inversion.
or you can move to Jefferson and taste the same bad water
and pay more for it.....its up to you.
The city could not solve the problem by flushing out the lines until the situation at the lake took care of itself - otherwise it would have replaced lousy water with lousy water. Once the water reaching the plant improved, the flushing began.
The phenomenon occurs in shallow lakes throughout the southeast. It's an act of nature.