| .....Various tastes and odors can be present in water, which can be traced to many conditions. Unfortunately, the causes of bad taste and odor problems are so numerous, it's impossible to suggest a single treatment that would be universally effective in controlling these problems.
.....Tastes are generally classified in four groups—sour/acidic, salty, sweet, and bitter. Odors, on the other hand, have many classifications. A terrific visual aid is the Drinking Water Taste and Odor Wheel published courtesy of the AWWA in the Water Quality Association’s Water Treatment Fundamentals textbook (p 179). It lists more than 20 commonly used names for drinking water odors and can lead to the identification of chemical compounds that may be causing a specific odor.
.....Some tastes and odors, especially those due to organic substances, can be removed from water simply by passing it through an activated carbon filter. Other tastes and odors may respond to oxidizing agents such as chlorine, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and potassium permanganate.
.....Where these problems are due to industrial wastes and certain other substances, some treatment approaches may fail completely. Chlorination, for example, may actually intensify some tastes and odors.
.....Potassium permanganate, ozone, and hydrogen peroxide have been found to be very effective in removing many musty, fishy, grassy, and moldy odors. Two factors make these compounds valuable—they are strong oxidizing agents and they do not generally form obnoxious compounds with organic matter. A filter must be used to remove the manganese dioxide formed when permanganate is reduced.
.....In any case, there may not be any single easy answer for solving unusual odors in water—you may be faced with trying a number of methods in an attempt to rid a water of objectionable tastes and odors.
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