After nearly two full days of work, the city of Emporia has not yet said taste and odor concerns with the city’s drinking water supply have been fully resolved.
Issues were first observed late Saturday morning. The root cause, a failure in a programmable logic control unit, was quickly isolated. City crews worked with a vendor through the weekend to get the ozone system back to full operation, but complaints came to KVOE News through the weekend and into Monday morning — with one resident saying her water smelled like carp.
Despite the odor and taste issues, City Communications Manager Christine Johnson says the city is fully compliant with standards detailed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment because chlorine is being used as its main disinfectant while the standard ozone system returns to normal. Johnson stresses the water is safe to drink and use.
All updates will continue to come through the City Communications Office instead of the Public Works Department. KVOE will update the situation as new information is released.
11 am Sunday: ‘The water is safe’ City administration reassures residents city water is safe to consume as work continues to restore water plant ozone disinfection system
Though you may notice a strange smell or taste, city officials assure residents that the city’s water is still safe to consume.
As KVOE has reported the past 24 hours, the Water Treatment Plant’s ozone system has been experiencing issues and staff and vendors are continuing their work to resolve the matter. City Communications Manager Christine Johnson says residents may notice a different taste or odor with their water until the matter is fully resolved.
The city is utilizing chlorine as its main disinfectant at this time and the plant remains up to code with KDHE standards. The issue with the ozone system is related to a failure of a programmable logic control unit that was initially discovered Saturday morning.
KVOE will have more details and information as they becomes available on KVOE and KVOE.com. All updates will continue to come through the City Communications Office.
