Tyler Water Utilities to study taste, odor quality of city water

Darby Good
·2 min read

TYLER, Texas (KETK) – The City of Tyler announced on Wednesday that a contract has been approved for an engineering study on how to improve that taste and odor quality of water from Lake Palestine.

In a release, it was said the City Council approved the $120,000 contract with HDR Engineering, Inc., and that the study and partnership with Tyler Water Utilities (TWU) is meant to “identify ways to enhance the treatment process and address the taste and odor issues that TWU customers experience when Lake Palestine experiences seasonal issues.”

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Water is provided to Tyler by TWU through two water treatment plants: the Golden Road Water Treatment Plant and the Lake Palestine Water Treatment Plant, which sources its water from Lake Palestine.

The city said in a release that Lake Palestine has inherently high levels of Geosmin, a naturally occurring compound that can cause concern on water quality, due to the age of the lake and the amount of natural organic matter.

“The water is safe to drink and continues to meet or exceed all Federal and State water quality standards,” the release said. “The water treatment plant can typically remove more than 95% of the Geosmin compound between the raw water and treated water samples. However, geosmin is detectable by humans at a very low taste and odor threshold, which is why it is treated year-round.”

The first phase of the two-phase project is estimated to be completed by July, and will assess the treatment process performance, regulatory compliance, determine target water quality parameters and develop the bench-scale and pilot-scale testing plan. The second phase plans to execute the testing plan, analyze test results and develop recommendations for proposed improvments.

“We are committed to providing our customers with safe, reliable and high-quality drinking water,” Utilities Director Kate Dietz said. “This study will help us identify ways to improve the taste and odor of our water and ensure that we continue to meet our customers’ needs.”

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