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If your tap water around Melbourne has smelled musty, earthy, or like a moldy fish tank over the past several days, you are far from the only one noticing it. The City of Melbourne says it has received reports of the change and has pinned the cause on its Lake Washington water source, while insisting the water remains safe to drink.
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In a statement posted to its official government page, the city acknowledged that “some water customers have reported changes in the taste and odor of our drinking water” and said plainly that “there is nothing wrong with the safety of the water.” The city added that the water “remains safe for drinking.”
What the City Says Is Causing It
According to the city, recent heavy rains changed the aesthetic quality of the raw water flowing into its treatment plant from Lake Washington. City operators say they are aware of the issue and are continually adjusting the treatment process, and they expect those adjustments to resolve the taste and odor problems for all customers soon.
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The city also emphasized its testing regimen. Officials say they test the water coming into the treatment plant, adjust treatment as needed, test the water again as it leaves the production plant, and continue testing at multiple points throughout the distribution network to confirm it stays safe as it moves through the system.
Where Melbourne’s Water Comes From
Lake Washington is the primary surface water source for the City of Melbourne and the single most important freshwater supply for the area, furnishing roughly two-thirds of the water to the utility’s customers. The lake is one of the connected upper lakes of the St. Johns River system, and it is one of only a handful of surface water drinking supplies in the entire state of Florida.
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That surface water is treated at the John A. Buckley Surface Water Treatment Plant, then blended with groundwater drawn from Floridan Aquifer wells and treated by reverse osmosis at the Joe Mullins plant. The City of Melbourne supplies drinking water well beyond its own borders, serving Melbourne Beach, Indialantic, Indian Harbour Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Shores, Melbourne Village, and unincorporated Brevard County south of the Pineda Causeway. West Melbourne also buys water wholesale from Melbourne, which is why residents there can be referred to the City of Melbourne when they call about the smell.
Why Surface Water Starts to Smell Musty
A sudden earthy or musty odor in tap water is a common and well-documented phenomenon for utilities that draw from lakes and rivers, and it is almost always an aesthetic issue rather than a safety one. The usual culprits are two naturally occurring compounds called geosmin and MIB (methylisoborneol), which are produced by certain algae and bacteria that live in surface water.
These compounds are not the result of pollution or a failure of the treatment process, and water experts across the country stress that they are harmless at the trace levels found in drinking water. The catch is that the human nose is extraordinarily sensitive to them. People can detect geosmin at concentrations as low as around 15 parts per trillion, which is why a bloom that poses no health risk can still make a whole glass of water smell like a fish tank or freshly turned soil.
Algae production of these compounds typically spikes during warm weather and after events that stir up nutrients in a lake, which fits with the heavy rains the city cited. It is worth noting that geosmin and MIB are difficult to remove with standard treatment, and many utilities turn to powdered activated carbon to knock the levels down, which may be part of the treatment adjustments Melbourne referenced.
A Familiar Story for Lake Washington
This is not the first time Lake Washington’s water quality has drawn scrutiny. In 2019, an algae bloom on the lake prompted testing after the presence of a toxin called saxitoxin, though the city reported at the time that follow-up tests found no toxins in either the raw or finished drinking water. More recently, in January, the city temporarily switched its disinfection method to free chlorine, which produces the opposite complaint, a strong swimming-pool chlorine smell. Some residents have described the water flipping from that heavy chlorine odor to the current musty smell over just the last few days.
What You Can Do
Because the compounds behind the smell are not a health threat according to water authorities, no special precautions are required based on the city’s statement. Residents who find the taste or odor unpleasant often chill the water in the refrigerator or add a squeeze of lemon, and a home carbon filter can also help reduce it. Anyone with specific concerns can reach the City of Melbourne’s water quality line at 321-608-5080.
Tell Us What You Are Seeing
Have you noticed the smell where you live, and has it changed over the past week? Let us know in the comments what part of the area you are in and how your water has smelled or tasted. We will keep following this and update if the city provides a timeline for when it expects the issue to clear.
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