New water high on yuck, low on yum

In a most unscientific taste test, new water treated with a chlorine-ammonia mix doesn't exactly make a splash.

By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 8, 2002

LAND O'LAKES -- Husbands and wives don't always agree, but Tony and Elizabeth Tilelli reached a marital meeting of the minds Tuesday: The new water streaming through area taps tastes worse than the old stuff.

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie] SHE DOESN'T LIKE IT: Land O'Lakes barber Beverly Burton praised the old water. The new water "tastes like it's not clean."

"This stinks. I don't know what it is," Tony Tilelli said after swigging the new water from a wine glass provided by the St. Petersburg Times.

Elizabeth Tilelli grabbed the glass and took her own taste test: "This just tastes like aquarium water."

"Like iodine," Tony added.

Florists from Land O'Lakes, the Tilellis were the first panelists at the Times' very unscientific tasting test matching old water treated with straight chlorine against new water treated with a chlorine-ammonia mix called chloramine.

The region's water supplier, Tampa Bay Water, is switching to chloramine because when chlorine mixes with certain organic compounds found in the area's water, it creates low levels of hazardous chemicals, such as chloroform.

Federal regulators are cracking down and soon will allow less of those substances in drinking water. So Tampa Bay Water is adding ammonia to bond with the chlorine, forming chloramine.

Thirty other Florida utilities already use chloramine, including Tampa and Miami. So do many other utilities around the country, including Denver, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Tampa Bay Water started pumping chloramine-disinfected water on Monday to the first of about 2-million customers in central Pasco and Pinellas counties. By Tuesday, the water had reached most Pasco customers. It is expected to reach the southern tip of Pinellas County by today or Thursday.

"Taste is subjective," Tampa Bay Water spokeswoman Michelle Robinson said. "Some people will like the new water. Some people will not."

The majority of the five people who sniffed, sipped and swished for the Times on Tuesday fell into the "not" category.

Land O'Lakes barber Beverly Burton, whose main professional use of tap water is to splash it on people's unruly hair, praised the old water, a sample of which the Times bottled on Monday before the new water started flowing.

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie] HE LIKES IT: Robert Hlavka, a chef at Pasco's Lakeside Grill & Lounge, liked the new water. "Tastes like spring water," he said.

"This one tastes like it's not clean," Burton said of the chloramine-treated sample bottled about an hour earlier Tuesday. "Like it's got chlorine."

Land O'Lakes librarian Terry Eagan had a similar reaction as he sipped the samples among the book stacks.

"This one has a little bit of an aftertaste, a stale flavor," Eagan said as he gave thumbs down to the new water.

The one person who approved of the new water happened to be the person with perhaps the most highly developed taste buds.

Robert Hlavka, chef at one of central Pasco's best-regarded restaurants, Lakeside Grill & Lounge, sipped the old water and shoved the glass across a table in revulsion.

"Ughhh!" he said. "I don't know what that one was."

On the other hand, the new water met with his professional approval. "Tastes like spring water," he said.

Hlavka admitted he always has thought Pasco's water tasted nasty and prefers Tampa's, which has been disinfected with chloramine for years.

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