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Hot weather plus the standing water of Saugahatchee Lake have created algae blooms that have been contributing to the musty taste of Opelika City water lately.

As temperatures increase, Opelika faces a familiar yet elusive problem in its water supply: it tastes like dirt.

“No one at my shop can drink it,” said Davey Phillips, head of the construction department at Van Nostrand Cabinets in Opelika. “Everyone has started bringing their own bottles. … It’s that bad, and something has to be done because this is the worst it’s ever been.”

This problem, though unpleasant, is not a health concern, according to Alan Wilson, professor and assistant director of Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences. The compounds that cause the unusual taste and odor of the water, which some residents have compared to a “dirty fish tank,” are an “aesthetic” problem.

Matt McDougald, assistant general manager of Opelika Utilities, said periodic algae blooms, when certain types of algae dramatically increase in population, create the compounds responsible for the taste and odor of Opelika’s water: 2-methylisoborneol, or MIB, and geosmin.

“It is very, very low concentrations of naturally occurring compounds that are extremely sensitive to taste and odor for people,” McDougald said. “It is what gives an earthy taste or what some people would say is a dirt taste, because it is the compounds that are found in dirt.”

These compounds come from algae in Saugahatchee Lake, one of the reservoirs used by the Opelika Utilities Board. Algae thrive in still bodies of water like Saugahatchee Lake, while moving bodies of water like the Board’s other reservoir, Halawakee Creek, do not experience significant growth of algae that produce MIB and geosmin.

“The more the water is moving, the less likely you are to have this problem,” McDougald said.

Dan Hilyer, general manager of Opelika Utilities, said the problem is not an easy one to fix. Treating the water for MIB and geosmin could cost millions of dollars, addressing a problem that Hilyer said occurs only every few years.

“I know from a customer standpoint, they get tired of tasting musty water, but there is a dollar value associated,” Hilyer said. “If it was a health problem, we would certainly do that without question. This is not a health issue. This is an aesthetic issue.”

MIB and geosmin can be detected in drinking water in extremely small quantities, usually at a concentration of ten parts per trillion, Hilyer said. If the concentration of these compounds were 100 parts per billion, he said, they would be equivalent to a tenth of a gallon in a 500-acre lake.

Instead of treating the symptoms of these algae blooms, Opelika Utilities is trying to understand how to prevent them from occurring. Algae blooms are common in still surface bodies of water, but there is no simple way to stop them.

“What is causing the problem here versus what is causing the problem in Atlanta may be different,” McDougald said. “That further complicates the issue, so we have to figure out what is causing the problem here.”

Many different kinds of algae produce MIB and geosmin, so two water sources could be experiencing a dirty taste from the same compounds but from different species of algae.

Since 2019, Auburn University has been conducting a study with Opelika Utilities to determine exactly what species of algae is responsible for the periodic algae blooms. By examining the environmental conditions and recording the algae populations in Saugahatchee Lake over time, they hope to determine exactly which algae are responsible.

“We need to do this research over a period of time, so that we catch all of the variables, all the environmental changes,” Hilyer said. “So that if we come up with a plan to be able to treat the reservoir, we do it for everything.”

After the study concludes, Hilyer said the next step is to adapt the lake to make it inhospitable for that species of algae, so it will not reproduce at a higher rate. For example, if the algae grows best in shallow water, they could excavate the lake to make shallow areas deeper, Hilyer said.

Since the study started in 2019, they have not had a significant algae bloom in Saugahatchee Lake until recently. McDougald said these blooms typically occur when there is a lot of rain after a very dry season.

“Generally speaking, when you have a good diet of a little dry followed by a little rain, a little dry, a little rain, we don’t see the issue as much as when you have a lot of rain, particularly after a very dry period, which is where we are right now,” McDougald said. “We just had a month where it was very dry, and now we are having some rain.”

There are factors that could affect algae growth beyond weather and water temperature. Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail surrounds most of the lake, though Hilyer said no correlation has been found between the lake’s algae blooms and the golf course’s fertilizer use, which Opelika Utilities monitors.

“We’ve spent a lot of money studying this,” Hilyer said. “This is not something we’re turning a blind eye to. What we have found … is that the environmental changes seem to have more of an impact.”

Tim Johnson, principal utility engineer for the City of Auburn, said that Auburn has not experienced problems with algae blooms as frequently as Opelika.

Auburn sources its water from Lake Ogletree and two groundwater wells. Additionally, the city purchases some water from Opelika Utilities to supplement their own supply.

When they do experience algae blooms in Lake Ogletree, which is as susceptible to them as any other still, surface body of water, an additional treatment process is employed to mitigate the amount of MIB and geosmin that enters the treatment facility.

In this process, powdered activated carbon is added to the water before it enters the treatment facility. This carbon absorbs the algae in the water before it can reach the facility’s filters and the plant’s remaining treatment processes.

“Whenever the algae particle dies, that’s whenever it will release those MIB and geosmin compounds,” Johnson said. “Trying to remove that algae on the front end that will — it prevents those compounds from being released.”

This process is only used when it is needed, but Johnson said it is still expensive.

“I don’t have the numbers in front of me, what the capital cost is at the moment, but it’s another piece of equipment that has to be operated,” he said. “And, of course, purchasing the carbon itself is another expense.”

Meanwhile, Phillips says the dirt taste in Opelika City water is getting increasingly more intense.

"I noticed it starting to taste bad, but tolerable, a few weeks ago, but sometime last week it got so bad I couldn't drink it anymore,” Phillips said. "It even has a strong smell, it comes out of the ice machine when I open it, and you can smell it when you turn the faucet on.”

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Hot weather plus the standing water of Saugahatchee Lake have created algae blooms that have been contributing to the musty taste of Opelika City water lately.

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