what makes my water smell like onion
Making the world better, one answer at a time. If you live in an area with a lot of snakes, what you may be experiencing is a contamination of your water. Some snakes emit an onion-like odor when scared (like a skunk does). What makes this potentially dangerous is that you may also be ingesting their feces as well, which can contain Salmonella and/or tapeworm eggs.