Utility Service FAQ's

Billing

For help interpreting your bill please see this brochure.

Many questions regarding customer service are answered in this document.

Water Quality FAQ

The Questions and Answers that follow are an excerpt from a book published by the AWWA (American Water Works Association) and includes references to things like surface water that are not relevant  to customers of Lawrence Utilities, LLC. You can find out specific information pertaining to the collection, treatment, and distribution of water in the city of Lawrence IN by visiting the "About Us" page on this site.

Q: Why does my drinking water taste or smell funny? Will this smelly water make me sick?

A: The four most common reasons for bad tasting or smelling water are:

1. A noticeable taste can come from the chlorine that is added to the water to kill germs. Heavily chlorinated water may contain "reaction products."These products cause no taste and odor and are limited by the US Environmental Protection Agency's rules.
2. A rotten-egg odor in some groundwater is caused by a nontoxic (in small amounts), smelly chemical - hydrogen sulfide - dissolved in the water.
3. As some algae, bacteria, and tiny fungi grow in surface water sources, they give off nontoxic, smelly chemicals that can cause unpleasant tastes in drinking water. Different algae cause different tastes and odors - grassy, swampy, and pigpen, as examples - and the little fungi can cause an earthy - musty taste.
4. Metallic tastes can come from copper that has dissolved from copper pipe and from iron from rusting iron pipes. Copper can cause short - term health problems like diarrhea and cramping.Iron has no effect on health.

Few of the contaminants that could affect your health can be tasted in drinking water, but heavily chlorinated water may contain "reaction by products." There are no proven incidents of the chemicals that cause a bad taste in drinking water making people sick, but just to be extra careful, water suppliers are reviewing this possibility. You should report any sudden change in taste or smell in your drinking water to your water supplier.

Q: What can I do if my drinking water tastes "funny"?

A: Five suggestions are:

1. Store drinking water in a closed glass container in the refrigerator (warm drinking water has more taste than cold drinking water). Although some plastic bottles are okay for storing drinking water in the refrigerator, some types of plastic will cause a taste in water. If you are having trouble, use a different kind of plastic.
2. Use an electric blender to mix the drinking water for five minutes. This mixing will remove some of the bad taste but not all of it. Remember that to be smelled, the chemicals that cause the smell must leave the water, get into the air and enter your nose. When you mix the water, you hasten the chemicals leaving the water and get rid of some of the odor causing chemicals prior to drinking the water.Then there are fewer chemicals to smell when you do drink.
3. Some people object to the chlorine taste of their drinking water. Boiling tap water for five minutes should remove most, if not all, of the chlorine. Ifchloramine is used as the disinfectant in your area, boiling the water for five minutes may not remove all of the chlorine taste. Ask your water supplier what disinfectant is used in your drinking water. Because heating and boiling water use a lot of energy and create a burn risk for children and the elderly, many people feel that water should be boiled only during emergency conditions. If you do boil, some of the minerals in the water will be concentrated a little by the boiling; however, this should not be a problem in most cases.
4. Adding 1 or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to refrigerated drinking water may result in a pleasant - tasting drink.
5. To improve the taste of the water you use for drinking and cooking, install a point - of - use water treatment product that has been tested by an independent organization following the method in the Taste and Odor Reduction portion of ANSI/NSF Standard 42. These products often contain activated carbon (sometimes mistakenly called activated charcoal or just charcoal) that can remove many taste and odor causing chemicals, including chlorine. If you plan on storing water from these devices, treat the water as a food and use clean, airtight containers and refrigerate.

If the problem is a rotten - egg odor, you may wish to consider home treatment equipment that will remove hydrogen sulfide, a nontoxic (in small amounts) but offensive chemical that causes this problem.

If you have at water softener (see Question 102) that treats both the hot and cold water, chlorine will react with the softening materials inside the softener, and the chlorine will be removed. Thus, you may not have a chlorine taste, even though chlorine is added by the water supplier.

Q: When I put ice cubes from my freezer in water to cool it, they make the water taste funny. Why is this?

A: This is a common complaint that has no single, simple explanation. Many items in a refrigerator and freezer can give off odors. Freezers usually contain packaging materials, food, and metal or plastic ice cube trays. If you have an automatic icemaker, harmless bacteria can grow in the water feed line and cause odors. Smelly chemicals being used near a freezer can even be absorbed into the ice. "Freezer smell" can even sometimes be noticed in empty metal ice cube trays. Though annoying, these "off flavors" are not harmful and can sometimes be lessened by cleaning and defrosting your freezer and ice cube trays.

Q: Drinking water often looks cloudy when first taken from a faucet and then it clears up. Why is that?

A: The cloudy water could be caused by tiny air bubbles in the water similar to the gas bubbles in beer and carbonated soft drinks. After a while, the bubbles rise to the top and are gone. This type of cloudiness occurs more often in the winter, when the drinking water is cold.

Another cause of cloudiness in cold water comes from calcium.In certain waters, the nontoxic chemical calcium carbonate will precipitate when it is cold. As it is white, this precipitate can cause the water to look cloudy. In this case, however, the particles settle to the bottom (usually in about 30 minutes) in contrast to the air bubbles discussed above that rise to the top of the water fairly quickly. Water with calcium carbonate precipitate in it is perfectly safe to drink or use for cooking, though it may be unappealing to look at.

Q: My drinking water is reddish or brown.

A: This reddish - brown color is nontoxic, but it is not harmless. It can stain clothing in the wash, and it looks bad.

The three possible causes are:

Your drinking water may contain a brown chemical that results from the source water flowing over tree leaves, similar to the way water changes color after tee leaves are added to it. This color must be removed by the treatment plant; you can not do much about it yourself.

1. Iron, which sometimes occurs in nature, may be dissolved in your drinking water. When iron is dissolved in groundwater, it is colorless, but when it combines with air as you take water from your faucet or elsewhere in the system, the iron turns reddish brown.?If you notice the water changing from colorless to brown, you may want to consider buying an iron removal unit for you home.
2. Drinking water pipes in the street, leading to your home, or in your home, may be rusting, creating rusty - brown water. Also, your hot water tank may be rusting. Water causing this type of problem is called corrosive. If you are having trouble and your neighbors are not, then your own pipes or water heater probably are rusting. Letting the water run a while will often clear the water (save the rusty water for plants). When your plumbing is rusting, lead and copper may be getting into your drinking water as well. This is important, so call your local water supplier to discuss this. To avoid problems with lead and copper, all water suppliers by law have to make sure that drinking water is not corrosive.

Q: My drinking water is dark in color, nearly black. What causes this?

A: When manganese, a chemical currently though to be nontoxic that frequently occurs in nature, dissolves in groundwater, it is colorless. When it combines with the chlorine in the water as it comes to your home, it turns black. To prevent "black water" problems, the US Environmental Protection Agency established a recommended limit (not required, just recommended) for manganese in drinking water. If you have blackish water, you may want to consider a filter to remove manganese from the water in your home. You should also report your problem to your water supplier.

Q: How long can I store drinking water?

A: Drinking water that is thoroughly disinfected, such as water from your public water supplier, can be stored for six months in capped, plastic containers that will not rust. Glass containers should be avoided as they can easily be broken. Water that has been boiled for one minute, or three minutes at high altitudes, can be stored for up to one year.Be sure to cool the water before storing it. Be careful to use plastic that will not make the water taste bad - trial and error is best here. Because the disinfectant that was in the water when you stored it will slowly go away, replacing the water every six months is recommended. The taste will become "flat" after extended storage, so periodic replacement will help here also. If possible, you should store water in a refrigerator to help control bacterial (not germ) growth.

Q: How much water should I store for emergencies?

A: A good rule of thumb is to store one gallon of water per person per day.Plan for at least three days. For example, a family of four should store about 12 gallons of water. You'll need more water in hot temperatures and for strenuous activities. People with special needs such as nursing mothers, young children, and family members with illnesses may require more water.

Reprinted from Plain Talk About Drinking Water, by permission. Copyright © 2001, American Water Works Association