Is your water safe? Columbia customers concerned about strong chlorine smell
Columbia water customers are asking questions about a strong smell they’re picking up in the water coming out of their taps.
Many customers across Columbia’s downtown core reported an odd chemical smell emanating from their tap water in the past week. Facebook users said their water smelled like Clorox or a swimming pool.
Columbia’s water department blamed the problem on a malfunctioning feeder pump at the water plant on the Columbia Canal. The feeder broke down last week, unknowingly stopping the addition of ammonia to the city’s drinking water.
When ammonia is mixed with chlorine, it forms a disinfectant that also has the advantage of being odorless and tasteless. But when the feeder failed, the city’s water was left with just the chlorine, which will be noticed when users pour a glass of water — although there’s no more chlorine than usual, and officials say it’s still safe to drink.
“Once we diagnosed the problem, we thought we had it resolved last Friday,” said assistant city manager Clint Shealy. “But there was still intermittent ammonia being fed into the water. We thought it was feeding in, but it was not.”
Shealy said the problem has now been resolved, and the water department is flushing out any of the remaining water from the system that might still have that chlorinated smell.
The problem would have been most noticeable in downtown homes closest to the water plant because the farther the water traveled, the more the chlorine would dissipate, Shealy said. Customers north of Interstate 20, who are fed from Lake Murray, wouldn’t have had any problem, Shealy said.
“There’s no safety issue,” Shealy said, “it’s just an aesthetic issue.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 2:33 PM.
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