After Spending $1 Million Last Year, Ohio City Has Tap Water Problems Again

After spending over $1 Million to treat a tap water problem last year, Columbus, OH, is back in a similar boat this summer.

"Heavy rain and farmland runoff are causing algae problems all over Ohio. One type of algae has made drinking water in parts of Columbus taste foul and smell funky, while another type is building up in Lake Erie and is predicted to stretch between Toledo and Cleveland by summer’s end," the Columbus Dispatch recently reported.

A water department spokesperson said that the algae at the root of the taste and odor problem is Anabaena.

"The city is treating the water with extra powdered carbon, which kills the algae and makes the water taste and smell bad," the report said. "Anabaena plagued Hoover Reservoir in December 2013 and January 2014, too, Zonders said. Some restaurants then served bottled water instead of tap."

The city has spent heavily to improve its tap water in recent years. Last summer, the city had to spend “more than $1 million to treat water at Hap Cremean after anabaena algae tainted the supply," the Dispatch recently reported. The city invested in carbon treatment.

The foul water affected about 500,000 city water customers. "The city is treating the water from a large reservoir with five times the carbon it usually uses," the Canton Rep said last year. State regulators got involved to clear up concerns about potential health impacts, the Dispatch reported last year.

This year, extra rain made the city more vulnerable to these problems.

“The amount of [algae] is similar to the last few summers. The difference this year is timing and rainfall,” said George Zonders, a spokesman for Columbus’ water department, per the Dispatch.