Funky-Tasting Water Pouring From East Bay MUD Taps As Treatment Plant Shuts Down

BERKELEY (KPIX 5) -- East Bay MUD customers are complaining about funny tasting water running through their taps due to a treatment plant upgrade.

The water district serves about 1.4 million people across the region in cities including Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and San Leandro.

More than half of those customers are being impacted.

Some describe it as mustier, and that's because an Orinda treatment plant temporarily shut down Tuesday for a $22 million plant upgrade, so drinking water will be coming from different water sources The plant will be closed for the first time since it opened in 1935.  "As our bodies age, so does a living water infrastructure age," Andrea Pook with EBMUD said.

"We are also putting in new filtration and new valve to allow to split plant in two, so in future years we can keep half the plant running," Pook said.

But, while EBMUD says the water may taste a little different than before, the water quality is the same.