On Friday, Sept. 29, Oberlin Water Superintendent Bill Albrecht announced that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had confirmed that the cause of issues in the water taste and smell had been the compound geosmin. Geosmin is a naturally occurring compound and is considered to be relatively harmless.

On the previous Friday, the City of Oberlin announced that the Oberlin Water Department  had sent several water samples to the OEPA to be tested for algal bloom. This investigation followed recent reports of the unpleasant odor and taste of Oberlin’s drinking water.  

“There [was] no information indicating that the water was unsafe to drink,” Oberlin Public Works Director Jeff Baumman said to the Review. 

The first press release Sept. 22 had announced several adjustments to the water supply, including flushing filtered water throughout the central water main. Oberlin College referred to the press statement and highlighted filtered water options for students who were uncomfortable drinking the tap water. Additionally, students have been buying cartons of single-use bottled water for their dorms. 

Oberlin’s water system is located on Parson Street and treats approximately 2.5 million tons of water per day. The Oberlin public water system relies on water from the watershed of the Black River.

Oberlin residents began to notice the unusual taste and odor within their drinking water in early September. Conservatory third-year Josie Stone described the taste of the tap water in Village Housing. 

“It had the taste of pond water with something vegetal, similar to algae,” Stone said. 

Albrecht spoke to the Review concerning how Oberlin solved the issue. He explained how the addition of activated carbon into the water supply prior to the OEPA test results had allowed Oberlin to effectively filter out the geosmin.

“Geosmin is absorbed onto carbon, and removed not dissimilar to that of a typical water filter,” Albrecht said.