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HANNIBAL, MO. -- Last week the Hannibal Board of Public Works started getting calls for funny tasting and smelling water, similar to the calls in Quincy.

That's not completely surprising since both communities draw their raw water from the Mississippi River.

Those calls increased over the weekend.

The Hannibal BPW is combating the problem with powder-activated carbon.

Hannibal Board of Public Works Director of Operations Heath Hall says that since the city already used the carbon in its process, that may have lessened the overall impact of the bad tasting water on the community.

But he still wants people to know that Hannibal's water is safe.

Hall says, "We're doing everything we can by chemical additions and talking to water treatment experts who are not in Hannibal as far away as Chicago to try to get some advice on what we can do and we'll take whatever measures are necessary to solve the problem. Hopefully it's a short term problem."

Just like Quincy the problem is being caused by brown algae in the water because of a lack of rainfall this year.

Hall says that in 4 to 5 days people should begin to notice a change in the water. But it may take longer than that to completely clear out the problem.