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A reader wrote us to ask if we noticed "an upswing in tap water stink of late," saying that he noticed a chlorine smell in his "Brooklyn apartment, Queens workplace, and various spots betwixt the two," with a " markedly stronger chemical/chlorine 'bouquet'." And Gothamist actually has - while we wait for our humidifier tank to fill, the water has been smelling rather chemically/bleachy. Does anyone know what's happening with the tap water? Did something accidentally happen to our drinking water reservoirs? If someone has a friend at the DEP and can tell us why, we'd love to be less paranoid.
A 2003 post about tap water being all right. Go Ask Alice confirmed NYC tap water was okay in 2004, and there's a funny thing that PBS's POV did about tap water.
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Maybe they are cleaning the pipes or adding more chemicals to kill the snow runoff contamination that fills the upstate reservoirs.
I agree! I thought the water at our apartment in Astoria, Queens has been smelling funny later.
Wasn't there just a huge oil spill off NJ coast? Maybe that has something to do with it.
It's a full moon. Maybe that has something to do with it.
whilst i was curing my hangover dehydration with a drink straight from the bathroom sink faucet, i noticed it didnt taste as good as usual
It's probably just something they're using to get rid of the maple syrup smell.
Yeah, there's an oil spill off NJ (and Staten Island!) but the smell's been here before that.
Maybe all the precipitation washed more stuff into the reservoirs upstate, so it needs extra strength cleaning?
Ah, but there hasn't been any extra runoff upstate. This last snow barely hit them and it hasn't melted yet up there.
i actually noticed this over the last 48 hours as well. something is definitely up.
I usually make iced tea from tap water, but I boil the water first. this time, even after boiling, it tasted funny. after reading this post, I just dumped the whole batch. scary.
Two words: road salt. Before and after an expected snow, roads are salted to prevent the snow from sticking. All of that salt melts the snow and then, in the resulting water, dissolves into its component parts, sodium and chlorine. You're smelling/tasting chlorine dissolved in water (which is all Clorox is), just at a much lower concentration than commercially-available bleach.
Well it's now September 26, 2006 and the cold tap water in my Flushing Queens home reeks of chlorine/bleach. REEKS!! It's pretty horrible.
It's been like this for 6 days now. I also have a business in the Bronx and it's close to the same there. I called the EPA and they claim that there have been no other complaits.
Road salt is not the answer on this one.