How's your water tasting? (2 photos)

If you are a Sault resident still unsatisfied with the taste, odour and colour of your tap water, and if you are willing to spend some money, there is a solution to your water woes.

There are several companies in Sault Ste. Marie and area which offer water filtration services for your home or business, one of which is The Water Works, owned and operated by David Thibodeau.

Originally a full-time professional plumber, Thibodeau has specialized in water filtration for 18 years.

Thibodeau told SooToday business has gone up for him by about 15 percent since the PUC introduced chlorine into the Sault's tap water in October 2011.

"City water had a certain degree of hardness to it but it was fairly good…but when the PUC changed to free chlorine our phones started to ring more," Thibodeau said.

"We got busier, people just weren't too happy with the water."

There are different water treatment methods and levels of service available, Thibodeau said.

"One treatment method involves reverse osmosis, which is basically like producing Dasani bottled water in your own home."

Customers may choose to have water filtration installed at the kitchen tap only, for example, or throughout their entire home.

Water filtration will not only help with taste and odour issues, but also dramatically cut down on brown water incidents which have plagued the city's east end in particular, Thibodeau said.

"If you put in a whole house filter system, you can pull all the chlorine and dirt out of the water and protect yourself from the discoloured water which occasionally happens."

"If they (the PUC) are doing a lot of back flushing, you could get some bleedthrough of brown water but nowhere near what you've experienced before, our system will definitely cut it right down," Thibodeau said.

"A lot of people tell us they don't see the discoloured water anymore."

Installation of one filter at the entry level point of use (cold water from the kitchen tap only, for example) costs $350 to $500 and typically requires a filter change every six months, which costs $150 to $160.

A whole house treatment takes chlorine from the hot and cold water from all faucets in the house and costs $800 to $1,000 to install, with a need to change filters every four to six months (depending on the number of water users in the home), which costs approximately $120 a year.

"We can also put in full size, electronically controlled filters, just like pool filters, but the cost of a system like that is in the $4,000 to $4,500 range and are usually for larger, multiple bathroom homes," Thibodeau said.

"Chlorine is necessary, we need it to get water safely to our homes, but once it's there though, you don't have to drink it or shower in it.  What we do is cut out the taste and odour."

"A lot of our customers took a wait and see approach (in regards to the PUC's water quality improvement strategy, which was introduced in February 2014 to address city-wide complaints about water taste, odour and colour after the introduction of free chlorine)…but some people said 'I've had enough, I'll just spend some money on a filter system and get it over with,'" Thibodeau said.

"You're going to get get varied opinions, there are going to be people who say they should have left the water the way it was and there are going to be people who say there are some issues but we don't have ammonia in our water anymore."

"I'm here for the people who are ticked," Thibodeau said.

To be fair to the PUC, Thibodeau said switching over a city's water supply to include free chlorine "is a balancing act."

"It's a good thing they stayed away from chloramine (which has more chemicals than chlorine)."

Meanwhile, the PUC is confident its water quality improvement plan is working. 

"On the complaint side we've seen a drastic reduction," said Giordan Zin, PUC supervisor of communications.

"This time last year, from January to July, we had about 967 calls from people about the water, and for January to July of this year we've had 104 calls."

"Our crews are seeing a marked improvement when they're doing the unidirectional flushing…the water is clearing up much quicker than it was clearing up in the past," Zin said.

The PUC is committed to conducting a telephone survey of customers through Ipsos Reid in November or December of this year, followed by a presentation to city council in early 2016, Zin said.

Based on survey results, input from the PUC and council, it will then be decided whether Phase 2 of the water quality improvement plan should be put into effect.

"We're not saying that it's perfect and the system is fixed but we're on the right path and things are getting better," Zin said.

As for those water filtration systems some customers are buying?

"It's the customer's choice…the water we produce in our system is tightly regulated and it's tested all the time, but if some people prefer having their water filtered in their house again that's their choice, but we have no position on it whatsoever."

"It's entirely up to the customer," Zin said.

(PHOTO: David and Kyle Thibodeau of The Water Works. Darren Taylor/SooToday)