KU News Release

Kansas Biological Survey: Water taste linked to algae in Clinton Lake reservoir

LAWRENCE — If you’ve been thinking that the city’s tap water has tasted a little strange for the past few weeks, you’re not crazy.

A study released by the Kansas Biological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, has found that an increased level of an organic compound called geosmin is the root of the problem in the Clinton Lake Reservoir. Geosmin is released by some algae and bacteria when they die in the water. It can cause the water to taste strange to some people.

The tap water is still safe to drink, according to Andy Dzialowski, who conducted the tests with the Kansas Biological Survey.

Taste and odor problems are common throughout the reservoirs in Kansas, and it was during a study of five reservoirs in the state that Dzialowski and the Kansas Biological Survey found that Clinton Lake and three other reservoirs had a taste and odor problem because of the increased levels of geosmin.

There is no set timetable for when the levels will decrease and the taste and odor problems will go away, but Dzialowski thinks the levels have already decreased at the Clinton Lake Reservoir.

Some people were able to taste the geosmin in the water. Often people can taste a difference when five parts to 10 parts per trillion of geosmin are present in the water. Thirty parts per trillion were found in the water at Clinton Lake.

The findings have caused the Kansas Biological Survey to discover ways to fix the problem and estimate when the geosmin levels will be at their peak.

“We are trying to develop relatively simple tools or predictive models that can be used by treatment personnel as an early warning system to predict when reservoirs are most likely to experience cyanobacterial blooms and taste and odor events,” Dzialowski said.

A similar situation occurred at Clinton Lake in 1995, when geosmin levels reached 60 parts per trillion, double the highest levels found in December.

To read the full report on prediction of taste and odor in Kansas reservoirs, visit www.cpcb.ku.edu.

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