How your water smells and tastes has a lot to do with the quality of the water source, Baker points out. “Utilities focus on preventing the transmission of water-borne disease, which is by far their most important job," he explains. "They do their best to control taste and odor issues, but some smells can persist.”
Chlorine is one of the most common offenders of objectionable water, especially if the water source is a municipal water system (84 percent of Americans have municipal water, based on our 2019 Water Quality Survey). The chemical is used in water-treatment facilities to get rid of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and utilities are supposed to use just enough of it to get the job done. But "occasionally they overdo it, which can leave traces in the drinking water,” says Baker.
Other common causes of funky water come from naturally occurring compounds near the water source, such as algae or microorganisms. If your water smells like rotten eggs and vegetables or a sewage treatment plant, the offender is probably dimethyl disulfide, which occurs naturally in soil and is generally produced by microorganisms living in oxygen-poor environments. You can taste and smell it even at low concentrations.
A musty, earthy aroma can come from geosmin or 2-methylisoborneol, compounds released by certain species of algae in or near the water source (usually lakes and rivers). And again, even a tiny bit can cause water to smell. You may notice seasonal fluctuations in these odors, too. Late summer is the time when algae bloom and die, so the water may be particularly pungent then.
If you have well water and it looks cloudy or rust-colored and tastes metallic, that’s likely from ferrous sulfate, a water-soluble form of iron that can find its way into groundwater.
"smell" - Google News
January 19, 2020 at 06:00PM
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Why Does My Water Smell? - ConsumerReports.org
"smell" - Google News
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