Smell, color. taste of tap water a concern in VBT, Downriver homes

On Thursday, Jan. 12, residents in Downriver communities started complaining about a Sulphur smell to the water coming out of their taps, along with a color and taste that wasn’t right.
Soon, residents in Van Buren Township also were complaining and worried that the water was not safe to drink.
On Sunday there was a television news report of puppies and dogs that drink tap water being hit with a bacterial disease that owners said could be attributed to bad water.
The Great Lakes Water Authority, now responsible for the water coming out of Detroit to Southeastern Michigan communities, issued a statement that it is working on the problem.
The Great Lakes Water Authority also said that the water is safe to drink based on tests performed after the smell had been detected.
But one Downriver community was getting a private test done on its water over the week end and now VBT also is performing testing.
A Nixel alert was sent out Monday morning from Van Buren Township Public Safety Department saying that VBT residents are continuing to notice a Sulphur smell in their water and the VBT government will continue to monitor this for residents.
A VBT resident said she called the Great Lakes Water Authority and Cheryl from the Authority said Lincoln Park and Allen Park were the first to report the problem, and now they don’t have any complaints. And, the water that leaves the plant is clear of odors and bad tastes.
The resident reported Cheryl said, “We need to run a load of hot laundry, drain the hot water tank, and let the cold water run until it stops smelling. We did all that and the water smells worse.”
She said, “Our problem is that darn water tower.” VBT fills the water tower during off-peak hours in the night to save money in water costs.
“I called non-emergency police. Asked if Van Buren was going to drain the tower. They didn’t know but told me to call on Tuesday because Martin Luther King Day is Monday.”
On Tuesday, VBT sent out a four-page fax with an update from James Taylor, VBT Director of Public Services, saying that he has been assured by GLWA that there are no harmful contaminants in the system but, “As a precaution, and in light of the heightened concern created by the Flint situation, Van Buren Township is performing sampling and testing to confirm the results of the GLWA and that there is no health risk…”
Last Friday, the Great Lakes Water Authority issued a notice to all its communities serviced by the Southwest Water Treatment plant that all the appropriate regulatory compliance checks indicate that they are meeting the regulatory standards.
“The taste and odor that your communities are experiencing is a water quality aesthetic problem. The GLWA is expanding its response and testing,” the statement said.
“The GLWA estimates the T&O incident should resolve itself within the next 12 hours. Any questions please contact GLWA Water quality at 1-313-926-8102.”
Cheryl Porter, Chief Operations Officer of GLWA, also offered a statement on Friday that included: “At this time, we are working with our local community partners to continue to assure water of unquestionable quality, and have put into operation at our treatment plant our activated carbon system, which will assist with the taste and odor issues. We expect the taste and odor issues to be resolved within the next 12 hours. In the meantime, we continue to expand testing to determine factors that might contribute to the detected odors.”
The taste and odor issues in VBT were not resolved within 12 hours.