Awful city water

Is anyone else in drought areas that gets their water from local lakes dealing with this right now? (Like some of you in Texas?)

I'm not sure what they've done now. My water smells and tastes awful - very strongly of chemicals and not how chlorine usually smells (reminds me more of a fertilizer smell). If I actually manage to ignore the smell enough to drink a glass of it I end up feeling a bit nauseous. My DH doesn't seem affected, but then he slowly sips at his water - I don't, I'm constantly thirsty and usually drink a lot of water and rather quickly. (Supposed to drink at least a couple liters a day due to hypovolemia and easily getting dehydrated)

For several years they had serious issues with the water, in late 2008-2009 the city had to notify people not to drink it for a while without boiling. Last year they brought in a private company to help.
We do have galvanized pipes and some copper, though I don't recall any copper on the kitchen sink. City water mains are old and slowly being replaced, though that seems stalled for now.

Should I call the city about this? I sort of doubt it would do much good or get me much information.
I'm mostly just really fed up with it at the moment cause I smell like chemicals from showering and the smell is not going away.

ETA: Supposedly it's just the lake turning over and that they're "trying" to get it treated. I suspect trying means having problems. I'm going to go buy some jugs of water, I will not give this nasty water to my pets.

Our furkids have been drinking bottled water for years and years. Our well water was so bad that we wouldn't drink it. I didn't even like cooking with it. It stank of sulfur and contained a lot of iron. Hydrox was treated for urine crystals and we're 99% sure it was due to the well water as he had never had trouble with crystals before we moved here. That was enough for us....he drank only bottled water.

Several years ago, we installed a water softener and reverse osmosis system with a blacklight. Our kitchen faucet is connected to the water system, but not to the water softener.....I cannot have a lot of sodium due to my blood pressure. The rest of the house is connected to the whole system. We have out water tested annually and have not had any trouble.

We are now drinking our well water. But our cats still drink bottled water only. They're all used to it and we're afraid to try to change them over at this time. And even when Maggie came to visit with us, she drank only bottled water, too.

I have good drinking water here, we are on a well.
But my vet advised giving the pets bottled water (but you still have to check it) because apparently our well water has alot of calcium in it or something like that which can cause kidney problems...

But we have to check the bottled water since alot of it also has calcium in it.
Hopefully yours gets straightened out soon.

I would absolutely call the village water department and ask some questions??? We have been drinking more and more bottled water in my home lately. I use it for my cats drinkwell fountain too.

I did call yesterday. I think they lied to me. The woman said that they may try flushing the hydrants in some areas to see if it helps… how would it help if the lake water was the problem?
I called my FIL (who knows a lot of people who work for the city) and asked how bad his water is, since he's on the other side of town and has modern (pvc) plumbing. He hadn't heard it was the lake turning over, but rather that some equipment broke down. That makes more sense, since flushing water out of the system would help if it was just some of the water that's bad.

We're not drinking it either. I tried boiling it, that only marginally reduced the smell and taste. In the past when the water was a bit fishy or cloudy, when the lake really was turning over, boiling helped.

Most people have hard water if they're on municiple water. The reason for this is because calcium protects plumbing and improves the taste, covering the taste of the chlorine to some degree. I have wondered what this does over time to cats.

We only have our well. We need a new water softener as ours after 33+ years as stopped working. Our nephew plumber tested our water Sunday. He said low iron but very hard.
Hopefully he can install a new water softener in the next month. Hopefully the cats will be ok. Our water has always tasted good thankfully.

Hope you can get some real answers to your water questions.

We have a similar problem every spring where I live. The reservoir gets an algae bloom and makes the water taste and smell awful. It's still ok to drink, so they say. However, those with compromised immune systems are not supposed to drink the water unless it's been boiled or encouraged to drink bottled water during that time.

So the town is as of today finally telling people not to drink the water due to very high amounts of iodine in the water. People are starting to get sick from this and not just sensitive people or those with immune problems. I'm certain that's not the only problem…

I stocked up on more jugs of drinking water. I'm now glad I haven't been using the water. Who knows what this would do to my geckos let alone the cats?

Personally, I would just invest in a reverse osmosis filter.

http://www.amazon.com/Watts-Premier-...3499045&sr=1-2

A nice four stage will effectively remove the contaminants you are concerned with that affect the taste of the water. Usually not necessary, but there are some that even include a powerful UV element that can destroy any biological contaminants.

Most of the time the bottled water you get is still just municipal water regardless, Penn and Teller did a great documentary on the scam. Don't fall into that trap IMO, as the cost is insane and in no time you could have already paid for a fantastic filtration system thats more practical and environmentally friendly to boot.

And if contacting the government, you can't really approach them with something subjective. Water testing kits are relatively inexpensive, and you can then show them the average result of three tests w/ PPM of impurities. This is more likely to get them to send someone out to do something about it. Best of luck!

Can't afford a major filter. Too many medical bills for that, plus I want to move entirely in a few years.

We usually don't buy bottled water, only when the town water is undrinkable. And yes, I know bottled water is just tap water. I'm not an idiot.
The point is it isn't our contaminated water. For many years in a row the city was fined for not properly having the water treated. The cause for this is primarily due to the ignorance of those that are supposed to be treating it. The city had a private company come in to help, but they're not in charge of running the treatment plant, presumably the same people making mistakes before are.

ETA: The petfood plant my DH works at has a high end RO filter and a water softener (saves equipment) and they're telling their employees not to drink the filtered water there. ..Of course they're still using the water to make pet food with.