ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Relief is on the way for a community fed up with the taste of their drinking water. That's according to the City of Englewood, which said it's no secret that many residents do not like the water. Now, there's a big effort to change that.
When Denver7 crews spoke to folks around Englewood, they heard many comments about the water, including, "It was awful. I couldn't even stand the taste," "The water has never been good in Englewood," "I don't have a problem with it per se, but we filter as much as we can," and, "Very sort of pungent, smelly."
The comments align with a citywide survey done last year, in which nearly half of the 1,330 residents surveyed rated their tap water as "poor." Seventy-three percent said they used a device to filter their tap water, 84% saw no improvement in taste compared to the year before and 35% saw discoloration in their water.
"[The survey] actually confirmed some of the suspicions we had," said Pieter Van Ry, director of Englewood Utilities, who says he drinks Englewood water from his tap every day.
While the water is safe to drink, he says the city is not shying away from the problem.
The reason why Englewood's water tastes so bad to some is complicated. Van Ry says older pipes can cause discoloration, and types of chemicals used to treat the water can impact taste. He also says the problem became even worse over the last 30 years as cities around Englewood developed.
"That urbanization, and that run-off associated with that urbanization, has increased the hardness and increased the nutrients, which increases algae and aspects of the water that causes taste and odor issues," said Van Ry.
The city has decided to spend more than $168 million over the next 15 years specifically to improve the drinking water.
"We've accessed money through what's called the Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act, which is an EPA funded program. It's low interest loans for communities like ours to access, to support projects like this. We've secured $60 million worth of loans out of that funding mechanism. The other thing that we're doing is we are going after a significant amount of money from the infrastructure bill that passed in late 2021 to address specifically lead service lines," said Van Ry.
One project currently underway hopes to improve the conveyance system for collecting raw water. Currently, water collected from the Chatfield Reservoir is conveyed through the city ditch system, which is open and exposed.
"By putting it in a pipe, it's a much more enclosed system, which gets us a more reliable water source at that point in time," said Van Ry, "We're also making improvements to the water treatment plant, and we're optimizing how we use chemicals to treat the water."
He says those changes should create a noticeable difference in taste and aesthetics in three to five years.
