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Tap water safe despite odor, taste Rogue River algae is culprit How to improve your H2O While some Medford Water Commission customers have reported a musty taste and odor, the water is clean and safe to drink, commission lab tests show. To improve the taste of your water at home, commission spokeswoman Laura Hodnett says you should: Let your tap water run before using it for drinking or cooking. Pour water between two clean containers or refrigerate it in a loosely-covered container before drinking. A higher-than-normal algae content in the Rogue River has caused a musty odor and taste in tap water for some Medford Water Commission customers, mostly in the White City and Central Point areas. "The water is safe to drink," said Ed Olson, Medford Water Commission manager. "This an aesthetic problem, not a water quality issue." In the past week, an average of five or six callers each day reported the smell to the Medford Water Commission, Olson said. Most of the reports came from White City and Central Point, communities closest to the Robert A. Duff Treatment Plant, where the Medford Water Commission drew about 10 million gallons of water a day from the Rogue River this past week to supplement the supply for the 95,000 people it serves. Between May and September, treated Rogue River water supplements the 26 million gallons that flows daily from Big Butte Springs, the city's underground source near Butte Falls. The city of Grants Pass also received calls about a musty odor and taste, water officials said. The water commission is dealing with the odor and taste problems at the treatment plant. Crews added two chemicals, an oxidant (potassium permanganate) and a powdered activated carbon, that will work together to destroy the microscopic particles in the water, Olson said. Why the algae concentration changed is puzzling water managers. River levels and temperatures are normal for September, the time of year when the Army Corps of Engineers decreases flow from Lost Creek Lake. While river water fluctuates daily, chemicals consistently produce a product that tastes good at the tap, said Laura Hodnett, the water commission's public information coordinator. But for the first time in at least 15 years, the treatment didn't work. The problem will resolve itself within a few weeks when the water commission stops drawing from the Rogue River to supplement its supply. Not everyone in the Medford area gets Rogue River water, Hodnett explained. Customers closer to the treatment plant at TouVelle State Park receive river water first, while customers farther away from the plant receive river water as a supplement to water from Big Butte Springs, which enters the valley in a pipeline near Cedar Links Golf Course. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA