Smell It? Taste It?

Smell and taste are categorized together since those two senses are dependent upon each other for an accurate characterization of an issue. With smell or taste issues, the first step is to determine if the problem exists in the public water supply or in your plumbing. If the public water supply is causing the odor, you will experience the odor from the cold water at every water faucet, and it will not fade as the water runs.

If the source of the odor is in your plumbing, most commonly the drains, you will experience the odor in only one or several, but not all, of the faucets. If the problem goes away after running the water for a few minutes, the cause is somewhere in your plumbing.

When you detect an odor in your tap water, we ask that you perform what we call a “glass test” at the faucet where you first noticed the odor.

1. Run the cold water tap for one minute.
2. Get a clean glass.
3. Fill and rinse twice with cold tap water.
4. Fill the glass a third time and turn off the faucet.
5. Step away from the sink, into an adjacent room. This helps eliminate the possibility of mistaking odors from your drain for odors in your water.
6. Smell the water in the glass and characterize the odor, if any. Please see the descriptions below to identify the odor you are detecting.

If your issue has not been addressed through this troubleshooting tool, and you would like a Water Quality Team Member to contact you, please contact us.