Bad tasting and bad smelling tap water is starting to show up in Utah homes. The smell is from decomposing algae excretions. And while that sounds terrible, News Specialist Samantha Hayes reports that it's essentially harmless.

The high algae levels were detected in Deer Creek Reservoir. The water is being treated with activated carbon at the treatment plant and in West Jordan. That's supposed to get rid of the musty, mildewy smell many people have been complaining about.

Genele Busha of Sandy says, "I couldn't tell what, but it was funny, like I was drinking some kind of medicine."

It's being described in different ways, but basically most agree there's something in the water.

"I was making ice and that's when I first detected (it), I thought there was something odd," Genele says.

And she isn't alone. At the water quality treatment office, Florence Reynolds says she started hearing about it over the weekend.

"We've been getting a lot of calls from our customers complaining about musty, dirty tasting water. It's unpleasant to smell and tastes bad, also," she says.

And it's something else you can blame on the drought.

"Very perfect conditions have been here this summer," Reynolds explains. "We've had shallow water, a lot of sun. It's been hot."

The water smell, though, is inconsistent. Arlene Ward lives in Sandy, one of the areas affected, and says she hasn't noticed anything.

She told us, "If there was a change, we have our own artesian wells, and I would go get my own water and bring it here."

It seems for a lot of folks Super Target is the local well. Workers are busy stocking empty shelves in the bottled water aisle.

Store manager Miki Riding says, "We have a lot of water going out of lanes right now, just because the water in Salt Lake County doesn't taste that great."

There maybe two reasons why some people are detecting that musty smell and others aren't.

First, the decomposing algae excretion, called geosmin, is testing in at 9 nanograms per liter. I'm told that's a very small amount. Some people might not notice it.

And since the calls started coming in, carbon treatments were boosted to get rid of it.

The most important thing, though, is water officials say while it smells and tastes bad, the water is safe to drink.

Sept. 4, 2002