More than two million litres of water with an earthy taste is being drained from one of Wellington's storage lakes.
The dirt, smell and taste is caused by a harmless compound, geosmin, which is routinely treated at the Te Marua Water Treatment Plant.
But a Wellington Regional Council spokesperson, Chris Laidlow, said levels of the compound had been exceptionally high in the past two weeks and it made sense to drain the water.
The storage lake is used as a back-up source and will take six to eight weeks to refill once the 2,067 million litres of unpleasant tasting water are gone.
