Algae Blamed For Bad Taste, Odor In Water

Blue-green algae growing in the small Archbold reservoir caused tap water to smell and taste odd.

Customers of the Archbold Water Treatment Plant noticed the problem about two weeks ago; many were still talking about it last week.

Rick Schantz, superintendent of the water treatment plant, said water treatment plant workers drew water out of the small reservoir for about 24 hours, starting on the morning of Monday, Dec. 10.

They discovered the problem and switched back to the large reservoir the following morning.

In that approximately 24- hour period, the plant treated about 3.2 million gallons of water. Schantz said it would take three to six days to work through the system.

"We can send out treated water, but we can't suck it back," he said.

There was never a question about the safety of the water. It was always safe to drink; the blue-green algae caused the water to have a musty odor and odd taste.

The plant feeds activated carbon into the water supply to deal with taste and odor problems. During the problem period, Schantz said, water department workers increased the amount of activated carbon.

Throughout

It takes longer for water to reach outlying areas. Pettisville is served by a 12-inch water main, and there are relatively few water customers on that line. It's six days from the time water leaves the water treatment plant to the time it reaches taps in Pettisville.

Therefore, water with the taste and odor problem should have been cleared out of the system by Dec. 17, at least in Archbold and Pettisville.

Ridgeville Corners, another of the communities that receives water from Archbold's water treatment plant, is served by an eight-inch waterline. Water with the taste and odor issues should have been cleared from that line in four to five days.

Schantz said standard procedure at the plant calls for workers to draw water from the large reservoir for two months, then switch to the small reservoir for a month. That way, both reservoirs have their contents replaced with fresh water, which is pumped from the Tiffin River.

However, on Monday, Dec. 10, the small reservoir had not been used for six or seven months.

Algae problems, particularly at the small reservoir, are nothing new, Schantz said.

Both reservoirs are considered shallow. That allows sunlight to penetrate the water and promote algae growth.

The reservoirs can be treated to kill the algae, but water plant workers will have to wait until the ice covering the surface of the small reservoir melts.

Fish Kill

Treatment could pose its own problem.

During the week of July 18-24, 1999, water treatment plant workers were battling particularly large "bloom" of algae in the small reservoir.

After the first chemical they used failed to do the job, a second, copper sulfate, was added to the water.

That week, almost 28,000 fish died. Their carcasses had to be removed from the reservoir, catalogued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, then buried.

Village officials explained at the time that the copper sulfate did not kill the fish. As the large mass of algae decomposed, it used all the available oxygen, leaving none for the fish.

Archbold was fined by ODNR for the fish kill, but the village was allowed to apply the fine towards the local share of a matching grant, which was used to construct a boat ramp at the big reservoir.