FOREST ACRES, S.C. — A resident of Forest Acres reached out to News 19, saying her water tasted like dirt and wanted to know why. Here's what Columbia Water said.
Katie Miller says turned her faucet on Wednesday to find an earthy smell and taste in her water.
"We are on city water, so we put our water through a filter system, and I still was noticing an earthy, just a dirt kind of a taste to it, and just kinda funky," Miller said. "It's not terrible, but you expect it to be brown color with the way it tasted like soil."
Concerned about the water, Miller reached out to Columbia Water about the issue.
"I actually contacted the city water yesterday, and a gentleman came out, flushed the pipes in my neighborhood or where I live, and he said he had to turn the fire hydrant on to flush the pipes out," Miller said. "He came back and asked how does it taste and I said it hasn't changed at all."
News 19 reached out to Columbia Water to understand what was causing this.
"Spring of the year, we can have constituents from algae show up in drinking water," said Frank Eskridge, Director of Utilities with Columbia Water. "They are harmless, but they create an aesthetic unpleasantness, sometimes an earthy or musty taste. Sometimes we are able to alter our treatment process, which we are in the process of doing"
Eskridge said they are working on the issue as fast as possible.
"We have a shipment of chemicals, carbon next week, Eskridge said. "We're taking some step even as we speak to increase the dosage now, before that shipment even arrives, so we're hoping to notice an improvement by this weekend."
"When you have something like this when nature's involved, you know you give it the benefit of the doubt," Miller said. "It's not their fault, but I hope it gets resolved sooner than later."
Eskridge said those experiencing similar issues should call Columbia Water's Customer Care at (803) 545-3300 if things don't get better by the end of the weekend.