If you live in the Albany County Town of Bethlehem and noticed your water tastes or smells off, officials want you to know they’re working on it.
For the past several days town residents have noted a peculiar musty, earthy taste in their drinking water. Bethlehem’s municipal supply has been affected by an algae bloom. The 165 acre Vly Creek Reservoir serves as the primary drinking water supply for the town, providing 3.0 million gallons per day.
Paul Penman is the town’s Commissioner of Public Works.
“The town typically treats for algae at the reservoir from May through October, beginning of October, which is every other week we do a treatment, and we typically stop at the beginning of October, based on weather temperatures being too cold for the treatment to apply. This year, we've had some unusually warm weather for us, and actually also low flows, very little rain, so it led to conditions for an algae bloom at the reservoir. We have tested the algae, and we have done water samples, and it's not toxic algae or blue algae, it's just normal to what we typically see up there. So our treatment process takes care of the algae, gets it out of the water. However, it leaves an odor and potential taste into the water which gets through the process,” said Penman.
In a Facebook post, the town says it anticipates climate change will bring elevated fall temperatures and longer dry periods to the region. Penman has been with the town for 20 years and says he's never seen anything like this.
“I'm not an expert on climate change, but you know, we're seeing, historically, every year, temperatures are getting warmer and warmer,” says Penman, adding that Bethlehem is looking into other filtration systems that could neutralize both odor and taste. For now the town has been modifying treatments and increasing its disinfection process at its New Salem and Clapper Road Water Treatment Plants, all the while taking water quality samples throughout its 220-miles of water mains to make sure the water is safe to drink, and meets all state and federal water safety standards.
“The issue that we're having is there's a lot of water in the system, in the pipes, in the tanks, and it's traveling through the system. So what we're trying to do is we're also flushing the water mains as we get the complaints. And we've also done a system wide flushing where we try to move the water out of the system. The issue that we're having is, since there's such so much water in the system, it's just going to take time to get it out, “ said Penman.
The water problem affects other municipalities, including Feura Bush, Font Grove, Heldervale, New Salem, and the Swift Water District. Penman says the smell and taste should eventually go away when the colder weather sets in. Meanwhile, there’s not much residents can do other than consuming bottled water or purchasing some kind of home filtration device.
“Brita filters have some, I say Brita, but those typical filters do have some success in it," Penman said. "You know, make sure the filters are fresh. But it's varying success. Some of them work great. Some of them don't. I'm not really sure which are more effective than others. But, you know, people [who] are concerned about that, yes they can try that.”
Penman says the water department is continuing to flush the system and any residents experiencing persistent issues can call the office and get on the list for additional flushings.
