Costa Mesa Turns on Tap, Finds Bouquet Is H2-Awful

Last one in is a rotten egg. At least that’s what you or your clothes may smell like if you have been using the tap water in parts of Costa Mesa this weekend.

Around noon Friday, residents began inundating Mesa Consolidated Water District officials with complaints about the foul-smelling water that was suddenly coming out of their showers, sinks and garden hoses.

“Everybody has a different idea (of) how it smells,” said Ron Winslow, superintendent of the water district. “When people call in, one says sulfur, another says it smells musty, another says it smells like a sewer, and another one says it’s rotten.”

Winslow stressed that although authorities don’t know exactly what’s making the water smell so bad, it poses no health danger. “But it’s certainly objectionable,” he added. “We hope to have this problem cleaned up immediately.”

The smell cropped up after a construction crew on the northwest side of town recently failed to close a large valve in one of the area’s major waterlines, Winslow said. Water that would normally flow through the pipeline at high velocity “was just sitting there and didn’t have a chance to move on through,” he said.

Soon, the water began to stink. Maintenance crews who discovered the problem Friday have been trying ever since to flush the offending water out of the system. But it has taken time, and some residents may be in for one last stinky shower this morning from what’s left in the water heater.

“It could also be a problem for people living in cul-de-sacs, where the water flow isn’t so good. This time of year is a bad time for this, because people just aren’t using water like in the summertime . . . you’d get rid of it quick then,” he said.

Winslow said it would be difficult to determine how many homes are affected in the water district, which serves Costa Mesa, a small section of Newport Beach, John Wayne Airport and a small section of unincorporated land.

“We’ve got people working hard to get rid of this problem, and people should realize there is absolutely nothing wrong, health-wise, with their water,” he said.