What is causing my tap water to smell and taste bad?

Tap water that smells or tastes bad prevents you from enjoying your tap water, buy bottled water and be somewhat embarrassed. This page will discuss some common sources of water smells and tastes.

For people on municipal water supplies the most common smell and taste comes from the addition of chlorine to the water as a sanitizer. This is done to minimize bacteria in the water supply and protect you from any pathogens. Unfortunately this also causes a pool like smell and taste to the water.

For people that are on a private water source any number of organic materials like Volatile Organic Compounds can cause problems with taste and odor and sometimes it’s due to bacteria.