City PUC tracks mysterious odour and taste in drinking water

Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Inc. has heard from at leasr three different East End residents this month that their water smelled and tasted funny.

Dominic Parrella, PUC vice president of operations and engineering, insists City drinking water meets all provincial standards for purity and health.

However, he says, over the past year a few people in different areas at different times have said their water tastes metallic or medicinal, and has a sharp metallic smell.

What changed about a year ago, Parrella says, is provincial regulations about the way water is treated.

Some City drinking water comes from an intake in Lake Superior while some comes from City wells.

Drinking water in the West End is mostly from the lake and water in the East End is mostly from wells, while the downtown and North End's drinking water is a mix between both.

PUC Inc. still uses the same amount of chlorination as part of its water purification process, but provincial requirements dictate that it's used differently for well water than it's been used in the past.

Both the method of adding chlorine to water and the stage at which it's added have changed.

Parrella says that the next thing the PUC will be looking at will be to try to find the source of the mysterious smell and taste that comes and goes in East End drinking water.

The challenge is that the smell and taste may be in two or three houses on one street one day, not in others and in none of them the next day.

Parrella said Saultites should contact the PUC if they notice anything peculiar about their drinking water.

The PUC will need to know what is peculiar about the water, when and where it occurred.