Residents of Morden have been experiencing a dip in water quality this past month. Director of Public Works Les Wieler attributed this to Algae getting into the City's water source.

"Algae blooms happen every summer. Some worse than others," said Wieler. "What's exacerbating the problem as well is that we've had a fairly dry and hot summer, which accelerates the Algae growth."

He notes they've also had issues with water being stagnant because it hasn't been flowing over the dam regularly.

Samples of the water have been sent in for further examination and results indicate the water is still safe for consumption without having to boil it.

The City has also recently installed ultra violet light for disinfection, adding an extra measure to provide safe water for public use.

Different areas of the city may also experience taste-odor problems for longer periods as water travels through the distribution system.

Wieler explained that a taste and odour process is in place which sees workers mix in activated carbon with the softening process as well. This process usually is able to remove about 99% of the odour and smell from the water. He added algae has a fairly powerful residue and the activated carbon can only take out so much. Wieler said they've tripled the concentration, but it's still not quite enough.

"One part per trillion is detectable in the water. It's very noticeable and just makes our problem that much worse," said Wieler. He would like to see the water back to normal sometime in November.

As the temperature gets lower, so does a number of algae in the water.

As for the future there isn't a guarantee this won't happen again, said Wieler. He added the last time he can remember algae issues as bad as this was in the late 1980's.

Wieler said as far as their process goes they've been doing everything they can.

He noted they're also doing research into finding alternative and affordable ways to prevent this from happening in the future.