VIENNA, Ill. - When you take a drink of water, you expect it to be clean and refreshing. But for the past few days customers of the Vienna Water District said that hasn't been the case.

That's why some of them called the Local 6 newsroom, telling us the water smelled and tasted bad.

The reason for the foul taste, according to the city, is early algae growth in the source water. City officials said it's caused by this year's drought.

"It's like summertime in May," said Tonya Mabrey.

And it's this time of year when business at Ned's Shed in Vienna takes a break.

"It's slowed down. It's the end of the month, so things are a bit tighter," said Mabrey, who's a manager there.

School kids usually fill the tables, but Thursday it was just regular folks.

And this week, the staff's gotten a few complaints about what's coming out of the tap.

"Just not good. One guy actually said it tasted like swamp water, and I said oh well we don't want you to drink that," said Mabrey.

Mabrey said she's had a handful of unhappy customers. But some didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Hearing over the last week that the water has a musky, dirty sock kind of taste," said Herb Hosfeldt, Vienna Water Plant Operator.

Hosfeldt said the city is working on it.

"Basically no spring around here, it's caused the algae to bloom earlier than usual," said Hosfeldt.

The algae usually hit in August. The city can only treat the water in a smaller side channel. They're using a variety of products to fix the problem, even going so far as to use carbon to absorb some of the foul taste.

"The taste, what you got is the reaction of the disinfectant with the algae," said Hosfeldt.

Hosfeldt said the taste is a sign the chemicals are working, and the water should be back to normal in a couple days.

"Some have complained and said it doesn't taste good," said Mabrey.

Tonya Mabrey's just looking to keep customers coming back.

Operators at the water plant tell Local 6 they taste-test the water each day.

They want the public to know there is no reason to be alarmed. The water is safe to drink. The algae growth is just happening two months earlier this year.