Lawrence residents may be noticing an odd taste and smell from their tap water due to an unusual algae occurrence in Clinton Lake.

But city and scientific leaders today are assuring everyone that city tap water is still safe to drink.

Chris Stewart, the city’s interim director of utilities, said that Lawrence’s Clinton Water Treatment Plant is experiencing abnormally high levels of geosmin, a secretion that is released by lake algae when they die.

The geosmin gives water an earthy or soil like smell and taste. Stewart said the geosmin levels currently are high enough that only people who are relatively sensitive to taste or smell will notice the difference in the water. City crews are adding extra carbon to the city’s drinking water to try to combat the geosmin.

Both Stewart and Paul Liechti, the assistant director of the Kansas Biological Survey, which is studying geosmin, said there is no evidence that it creates any health dangers.

For more on the story, tune into 6News tonight at 6 and see Wednesday’s Journal-World.