City Says the Problem Causing Smelly Water is Now Resolved

But the odor caused after lightning struck a water treatment plant could linger a few more days. Plus, state budget wins for Winter Park projects

July 10, 2025

By Beth Kassab

Residents complaining of a strong sulfur smell coming from their faucets in recent weeks got some good news on Thursday: The damage likely caused by a lightning strike to the ozone generator at one of the city’s water treatment plants appears to be resolved though the odoriferous problem may continue for a few days.

City Hall posted the update on Thursday afternoon after complaints about the smell and lack of information about it surfaced publicly at the City Commission meeting on Wednesday.

A power surge during a lightning storm hit the water treatment plant, one of three that supplies water to residents, on June 27 and city staff has been working ever since to bring the machine that oxidizes the city’s water to help purify it and reduce the rotten egg smelling sulfur often associated with Florida groundwater.

The water is safe to drink and the output from the damaged plant was reduced and treated with additional chlorine while repairs were underway, City Manager Randy Knight said.

“Twelve days of sulfur smell is a lot,” Cathy Baumgardner, who lives just north of Howell Branch Road, told the commission on Wednesday. “That’s not the big issue. The big issue is the lack of communication. Nobody contacted us … we didn’t know it was healthy until we called and asked.”

David Zusi, director of Water and Wastewater Utilities, said the water plants had withstood lightning strikes before but never one so severe that a portion of the treatment system was offline for so long. He said a number of experts, including the manufacturer of the ozone generator, which removes hydrogen sulfide from the water, were called in to help resolve the problem.

“This issue was extremely difficult to diagnose because no fault code was generated within the system,” the official update read. “Please note it may take a few days for the water with elevated hydrogen sulfide to flow out of the distribution system before it returns to normal odorless water.”

City to get $800k in project dollars from state

At at time when local governments are scrapping for every dollar from Tallahassee, Winter Park officials said this week that three projects requests made it into Gov. DeSantis’ final budget, escaping the veto pen.

DeSantis signed the $117.4 billion budget last week after cutting $567 million in line-item vetos.

• The largest score is $500,000 to replace the bridge on Stirling Avenue over Howell Creek. The 70-year-old bridge will be replaced, including drainage for surface water, sidewalks and railings over the bridge.
• The city will also receive $250,000 to dredge Lake Lillian at Mead Gardens.
• And $62,500 will go toward bollards or sturdy posts that act as a barrier between pedestrians at events and vehicles.

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