Recent Water Taste and Odor Explained

TYLER — Tyler officials are explaining some taste and odor issues that have recently emerged in the city’s water. Officials say on Monday, Feb. 4, the Golden Road Water Treatment Plant was taken offline as part of ongoing construction to the plant, leaving the Lake Palestine Water Treatment plant the sole provider of treated water to the system this past week. During this same time period, the city experienced a spike in Geosmin, a taste and odor compound, coming from Lake Palestine to the Lake Palestine Water Treatment Plant. Geosmin is non-toxic and safe to consume. It typically produces an earthy odor and is naturally present in some foods such as beets, spinach and mushrooms. Typically, both water treatment plants operating at the same time automatically minimizes the amount of detectable Geosmin.

Officials say staff is feeding the maximum amount of Ozone and PAC (powdered activated carbon) at the Lake Palestine Water Treatment Plant to minimize the impact. Officials report they’re seeing 93% removal of the Geosmin compound between the raw water sample and the treated samples. Geosmin is detectable by humans at a very low taste and odor threshold, which is why it is treated for year-round. Due to the low demand for water this time of year, this was the optimum time to take the Golden Road Water Treatment Plant offline to finish construction, according to a news release. City officials say they’ll bring the Golden Road treatment plant back online as soon as possible. The blending of the water will aid in eliminating the taste and odor issues, and improvement should be noticed within 72 hours of the plant coming back online, according to the release.