For a couple days last week, I thought I might be losing it. Every time I drank tap water in Martinez, whether it was in my home or in a couple restaurants downtown, I tasted a moldy/ musty flavor. It was horrible and to me, undrinkable. I asked around and nobody else had noticed. Finally, a couple days ago, someone else told me they were having the same experience! I hadn't heard any info on it, so I decided to call Alan Pellegrini, the Martinez Water Superintendent. In a voicemail message, Mr. Pellegrini said there was an algae growth that was found in the source water. He's says they have it under control and that "there aren't any health or safety issues related to this". They are working hard to get the algae back under control and they expect improvement each day. He did not mention how long it could take to get back to normal.
Finding algae in our source water is not a completely uncommon thing and most of the time there aren't any health implications. According to an article publish by the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources (www.dnr.mo.gov/env/wpp/tmdl/tmdl_Strategy_B.pdf), "Algae in drinking water reservoirs cause problems for drinking water supplies which appear to be due to the release of organic chemicals from algal cells either during normal metabolic processes or following rupture of algal cells after the algae die. The most common of these problems are taste and odor and the potential for increased formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) and fortunately, much less common are incidences of human illness." That’s good news. I haven’t noticed any health problems in myself over the last week, but I stopped drinking the water as soon as I noticed the smell and taste.
At this point, I don’t see any reason to worry. I love my water and up until now I didn’t have any problem drinking Martinez tap water, but I will not be drinking it until the musty/ moldy smell goes away.
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Dr. Mark
