SCOTTS VALLEY — Famously foul drinking water in Scotts Valley looks to be a thing of the past, after a ratepayer-funded $3.5 million upgrade to the main treatment plant.
Scotts Valley Water District officials this week held a blind tasting — comparing the “new” water from the Orchard Run plant to that of an unnamed local water provider and an unnamed bottled water company.
Scotts Valley Fire Chief Ron Whittle said he successfully identified the Scotts Valley water in the taste test.
“This was actually really good,” Whittle said.
Whittle has lived in Scotts Valley since 1974 when he was a child “and the water had quite a flavor,” he said. His family would pour water into a glass pitcher, put it in the refrigerator, and leave it for a couple days so the sediment would settle to the bottom, he said.
The new equipment at Orchard Run, which draws water from two wells and is located near Highway 17, went into action a month ago. Unlike Santa Cruz, which gets nearly all of its drinking water from surface sources, Scotts Valley relies on wells sunk 350 feet to 1,750 feet into
groundwater.
Scotts Valley Mayor Donna Lind, also in attendance at the event Wednesday afternoon and a 54-year resident of the city, called the water “much, much improved.” The city’s water has had an abysmal reputation for decades, with residents complaining about its strong mineral flavor and the damage it caused to appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers, Lind said. Many people would install filters and soft-water systems, she added.
Naturally occurring hydrogen sulfide in water treated at Orchard Run also meant Scotts Valley’s tap water could have a sulfur smell, said water district operations manager Dave McNair. The previous chlorination system also led at times to a heavier taste and smell from chlorine, and iron and manganese contributed a mineral flavor and mineral buildups, McNair added. Although another of the city’s plants, called Well 10, has some iron and manganese in its output, the
water-quality issues for the city mostly came from Orchard Run, which supplies at least half the water at any given time to nearly all residents, McNair said.
The multimillion-dollar project at the plant — at the end of Polo Ranch Road with a capacity topping 1 million gallons per day — included two large new 20,000-gallon carbon-filtration tanks, a new high-pressure chlorination system that matches chlorine input to water flow, and an “odor scrubber” that uses bacteria and carbon to consume the hydrogen sulfide in the water.
That scrubber, officials said, will also improve air quality — previously, a sulfuric, rotten-eggs smell from released hydrogen sulfide gas would drift across the area, and the gas, considered
“highly toxic” by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, laid waste to redwood trees in the area, many of which remain denuded of foliage in their upper regions.
The new filtration tanks, using carbon made from coconut shells to remove iron and manganese and take away some mineral-caused hardness, are primarily responsible for the improvements in the clarity and taste of the water, McNair said. “We’ve taken a big leap forward,” McNair said.
With the new system in place, Lind said she believes residents can do without filtration or softening systems for their water. For drinking water, said water district general manager Piret Harmon, “There’s no need to go to a grocery store and buy it.”
At Cassidy Insurance in Scotts Valley, owner Edan Cassidy has been having 5-gallon water bottles delivered for years. He lives just outside city limits in a home with a well, and he said he had not drunk city tap water for about two years, when it “wasn’t bad compared to 10 or 15 years ago” but still left much to be desired. Asked to try some tap water Thursday with the new Orchard Run system in place, Cassidy filled a wax-paper cup and took a drink. “It’s a pleasant surprise,” he said. “It’s considerably better than it was just a few years ago. This tastes pretty good.”
