Drought affects taste of town water

reporter@thefranklinpress.com

Customers of the Town of Franklin's water system may have noticed some unusual odors or tastes in their tap water recently, and these concerns can be attributed directly to the temperature of the water.

Ray McCall, a water treatment plant consultant with the Asheville Regional Office of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Public Water Supply Section, visited Franklin last week to investigate the problem.

The water the town draws out of Cartoogechaye Creek and treats is "very, very warm," about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, according to McCall. When that surface water is then treated with chlorine and distributed into the system, it can have a "flat, musty or earthy taste," McCall said.

"There's nothing you can do about it," he said, adding that there is "nothing wrong with the water."

Despite the warm weather, tests administered by the state have determined that the problem is not a result of algae blooms, nor can it be attributed to any spill or any other contaminant that would have been introduced into the system. There is no change in the pH of the water and there have been no fish kills.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been much rain to cool the water in the creek, and McCall noted that there are as many as 10 other water systems in the western part of the state that are dealing with high water temperatures.

McCall reviewed the town's water quality monitoring records and found "nothing there" that was out of the ordinary. There were "no indicators" of any other explanation for the problem.

The town routinely samples the water several times a day, and McCall has suggested to the town's water treatment officials that they go a step above that level and perform a "complete organic scan."

Meanwhile, the town has added powdered activated carbon to its treatment process "to freshen the water up," McCall said. Powered activated carbon is commonly found in most home water filtering systems, McCall explained.