| QUESTION | POTENTIAL CAUSE | RESPONSE |
| Why does my water smell like rotten eggs? | Household plumbing. | Household plumbing problems may be the cause of a sewage or "rotten egg" odor coming from your tap water and may not be directly related to the water supply. If you detect an odor in your kitchen faucet, it could be the result of a partially clogged drain or a dirty garbage disposal. The easiest way to verify this is to check another faucet in the house. If the water from the other faucet is odorless, then the bad odor is probably coming from the garbage disposal. Other causes could be your hot water heater. You should flush your hot water heater annually. When flushing, please be sure to turn off the power to the heater at the circuit breaker, drain the tank, and restore power when the tank is full. One other hot water heater solution is to replace the magnesium anode with an aluminum anode. Contact a plumber if you have any concerns. |
| Why does my water look cloudy? | Trapped air bubbles. | Trapped air bubbles may be the cause of cloudy water. To clear your water, run the water in the bathtub for five minutes. Repeat if needed. |
| Why does my water look rusty? | Neighborhood fire hydrants may have been tested to ensure reliability in case of a fire. | Neighborhood fire hydrant reliability testing may cause rusty-looking water. Run the water in the bathtub for five minutes to flush the water. Remember not to wash clothes until water clears. If water does not clear up, please call GRU at (352) 334-2711. |
| What is GRU’s water hardness? | Our groundwater is harder due to dissolved minerals (about 140 mg/L as CaCO3 or 8 grains). | Our groundwater is harder due to dissolved minerals (about 140 mg/L as CaCO3, or 8 grains). Gainesville’s drinking water comes from the Floridan aquifer. We test and treat it at the Murphree Water Treatment Plant. • Hardness: Approximately 140 mg/L as CaCO3 (8.2 grains/gal) • pH: 8.6 • Sulfate: 97.4 mg/L • Chloride: 26.3 mg/L • Ammonia: 0.24 mg/L |
| Are there pharmaceuticals in my water? | Improper disposal of medications and excretion. | Pharmaceuticals may be introduced into the water supply due to improper disposal of medications and excreted medications. GRU tests our water for pharmaceuticals. All results are at or below the detection limits. For more information, visit this year's full water quality test results. |
GRU has reduced printing costs for this pamphlet by moving the full report online. GRU is required by the EPA to provide this report to its customers. To request a hard copy, please call (352) 393-1600.
