THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250467
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, DEBBIE MESSINA AND LORI DENNEY
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
No one was quite sure how to describe the taste of water that spilled from countless home and restaurant faucets in Virginia Beach and eastern Norfolk on Wednesday.
Brackish. Dirty. Moldy. Soapy.
Whatever the flavor, the problem with tap water was only cosmetic, caused by a persistent algae bloom that suddenly emerged in Lake Smith Friday and then defied efforts to mask its taste.
Public utility officials in both cities asked for patience while the river of funky tasting but perfectly safe water moved through city pipes. The odor was expected to last no more than another week, but could be absent sooner in some places.
Many people were not willing to wait.
``I was making my coffee with it,'' said Kim Brown, of Bellamy Plantation in Virginia Beach. ``I put sugar and cream in it, but I just can't stand to drink it. It's terrible. It's gross.''
As it turns out, coffee and tea tend to intensify the bad flavor. Still, fed up with her tap water, Brown resorted to bottled water, just like Kings Grant resident Shirley Sweet.
``It tastes bad and it smells like a swimming pool,'' Sweet said. ``It makes coffee very bitter. I'm buying bottled water, but it's getting pretty scarce.''
Some grocery stores reported brisk sales of bottled water.
At the Food Lion in Holland Plaza Shopping Center, the tale was told in boxes that once held bottled water but lay empty on the floor. Only a few one-liter bottles remained; the gallon jugs were sold out.
Crystal Reid and her daughter, Cynthia, gathered what they could at the store.
``We have to buy cases somewhere,'' said Cynthia Reid, a regular bottled-water drinker whose habit has grown more frequent with the algae bloom. ``We would have gotten more if they had had more.''
``The water tastes bad,'' added Crystal Reid, shaking her head. ``It just tastes bad. We'll probably have to go to the next city (for more water).''
Robert Alfred, a co-director at Super Fresh on South Rosemont Road, said bottled-water sales were up almost 100 percent.
``I've had a few people come in commenting that the water has a really bad taste,'' said Alfred. ``I'm just about out of bottled water, except for the higher priced brands.''
Alfred expects the next water shipment - scheduled for today - will go quickly.
``Sales are definitely up!'' he said.
Restaurants have complaints, too, but it's not changing the way they do business. Most restaurateurs interviewed said they will continue to serve the water and use it to make coffee and tea.
Employees at the Chick-Fil-A at Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach offered alternate suggestions to customers who ask for water, tea or coffee.
``It's not up to our normal standards, but there's nothing I can do,'' said manager T.J. Lloyd-Zannini. ``We explain the problem and suggest another drink to them.''
Some customers apparently are not satisfied with being presented options. A handful of customers at Pargos Restaurant on Lynnhaven Parkway in Virginia Beach complained.
``We just got three complaints today,'' manager Troy Makel said Wednesday. ``It has a slight sewage smell to it. It smells like the ground or like dirt.''
But in stores where water is a key ingredient, like the First Colony Coffee House on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach, sophisticated filters are commonly used to further purify water. The flavor of coffee has not changed, but people still ask for water at their tables.
``But we have had some complaints from guests about the water we've served,'' said Brad Wetzell, manager. ``They say it has a foul odor and it doesn't taste that good.''
The problem apparently isn't widespread. Several restaurants in Norfolk reported no problem.
Susan Sadowski, a lab supervisor in the Virginia Beach Department of Public Utilities, estimated that 500 people had called in the last few days with questions about water quality.
``I don't think I have ever seen it as intensely bad as this episode,'' Sadowski said. ``A lot of people who have called said they have lived here for 20 years and it's never been like this. I say: Thank goodness.''
Sadowski stressed that the algae is not a bacteria and poses no health hazards.
``This is not a bacteriological problem. Period,'' she said. ``It's the difference between apples and oranges.''
Louis L. Guy, Norfolk's director of utilities, said the problem arose when the city changed its normal mix of reservoir water. Normally, the city draws about 85 percent from so-called western reservoirs in Suffolk and 15 percent from city-based lakes, like Lake Smith and Lake Wright.
But with ongoing renovations to the Moores Bridges treatment plant, the city had to make a temporary switch and rely entirely on city lakes. At exactly the same time, the algae bloom occurred.
``An algae bloom is not unheard of,'' he said. ``We had something like this three or four years ago, but it did not have the same impact because we were only using 15 percent of Lake Wright water in the mix.
``In this case, we were using 100 percent of Lake Wright water and that made the impact greater. We've gotten through it. We're back to blending the water, but there is this slug of bad water that went into the system and we have to get through this to get back to normal.
``It's embarrassing,'' he added. ``We're proud of our water quality. We do a good job. We hate for something like this to happen.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[water]
Murky water from Lake Smith, off Northampton Boulevard in Norfolk.
Water officials say quality should be back to normal soon.
KEYWORDS: WATER by CNB