07-03-2025
Bloomington Water department taking steps to fix water for residents
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — Residents have noticed a bad smell and taste of Bloomington's water, and the city is starting the process of fixing it through powdered activated carbon (PAC).
Ed Andrews, director of water for the city of Bloomington, doesn't know when the water will be better for residents, but said they are trying.
'We are hopeful that we're going to turn the page maybe this weekend, but we're just getting that system online, so I'd hate to say, 'Oh, by this magic date, we're going to be back to normal,' but that is definitely what we're striving for.'
The reason the water tastes and smells bad is due to the amount of Methylisoborneol, commonly referred to as MIB, in Lake Evergreen, the city's new water reservoir.
The Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority said MIB is produced by algae and bacteria, and usually occurs in the late summer and early fall, which creates an earthy or musty smell.
Andrews said the MIB of raw water from Lake Evergreen last week or the week prior was 480 nanograms per liter. It increased to 490 last week.
'Last fall we were at 37 (nanograms per liter) in Lake Bloomington and we were at 120 nanograms per liter in Lake Evergreen,' he said. 'Both of those subsided to where we were less than ten for most of December and January. Then in January it started spiking up again.'
The water department has begun the PAC process, which is supposed to bring down the MIB compound in the water.
The city picked up the PAC from West Virgina, which was a 24-hour turnaround. They didn't want to wait for it to be shipped.
In a news release, the city wrote that the PAC process is ongoing steadily, with the department slowly increasing the concentration of carbon used.
'Right now, the City is feeding PAC at a lower dose than the goal, but crews are working to increase it,' Katherine Murphy, a spokesperson for the city wrote. 'This morning, they began swapping out equipment at the feed system to bring a larger unit online. The smaller system was adding PAC at 7ppm, but the ideal level is 20ppm. We are continuing to ramp this target.'
No date was given for when the city expects the water to be back to normal.
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