Bloomington has often been criticized for the taste of its tap water. Students and residents alike have resorted to using Brita’s to filter their water, boiling it before use or even purchasing bottled water to ensure safety and a pleasant taste.

The City of Bloomington realized they had a water problem after receiving so many complaints about the taste and smell — so they decided to do something about it. Their solution is adding a coconut-powder based carbon compound to the water. This isn’t anything entirely new — and it isn’t really “coconut” per se — but they’ve added a higher solution of the compound which has proven to better both smell and taste.”

“Powder activated carbon is a very common thing to use in water treatment,” Bloomington water quality coordinator Justin Meschter said. “It’s used mostly in surface water source treatment plants. It’s very good at removing organic matter and it helps with the aesthetics of the water, which is kind of why we’ve changed a little bit of what we’re doing — because that taste and odor issue has been a problem for us the last two or three years now.”

But Bloomington residents and IU students are wary of the taste. It’s not a good one, according to them.

The change to the water has already occurred and Meschter says that these changes have dramatically altered the aesthetics of the water. Both odor and taste have improved since this summer when the change was first introduced.

But even so, some students have had such bad experiences with the quality of water here that the change doesn’t alter their opinion.

“I don’t exactly like to drink water from the tap, and if Im going to drink water, it has to be with a green filter when Im walking through the buildings,” IU junior Cassidy Mulgrew said. “Otherwise, I don’t trust it. I just don’t trust tap water in general, especially here in Bloomington with all the issues that there’s been.”

Despite some concerns about the safety of coconut powder, the compound is completely safe and allergen-free. While Meschter notes that britas are typically used as an extra layer of filtering, he insists that the tap water is more than safe for use.

The city hopes that this change will fix their water problem by counteracting the algae and organic matter in the source.