The District’s operators are aware of color, odor and taste issues in the water.
Mitigation procedures have been implemented and samples have been taken.
The District’s operator believes this was a temporary “blending” issue, and the water is safe to drink:
“…I have not received the report from the lab yet, but have received verbal confirmation that the bacteriological samples are negative and that iron and manganese were present, which is typical of ground water.
These constituents will cause taste and odor complaints. A couple of the other samples that were collected will take a bit longer to analyze but we should get these back soon.
Long story short, our water is safe to drink.
We will evaluate the samples from the raw water and determine if we may need to add phosphate to sequester the iron and manganese.
We will also run the well (ground water) onto the ground for a few minutes before adding to our distribution system (i.e., mixing with the surface water in the tank).
These steps should help avoid this situation in the future.”