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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWater Quality Report 2008  Water Quality Report for 2008 The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) requires each water purveyor in the state to provide its customers with an annual water quality report. Georgetown Utility Systems (GUS) is dedicated to providing high quality drinking water. Last year we conducted more than 600 water quality tests and never exceeded the safe drinking water standards established by the EPA. Our water comes from the Edwards Aquifer and Lake Georgetown. Generally, customers living to the west of IH-35 are served by water from Lake Georgetown with a hardness of 200 mg/L (11-12 grains/gal). This hardness level is low in the “hard” range. All other areas are served by the Edwards Aquifer with a hardness of 300 mg/L (17-18 grains/gal), and is considered to be “hard”. If you have any questions about this report or any other details about your water utility, please contact us at 512-930-3558. Public participation Opportunities If you are interested in learning more about your water utility, attend either a City Council meeting scheduled for the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month starting at 6:00 PM in the City Council Chambers at 101 E. 7th St or attend a Georgetown Utility Systems Advisory Board meeting normally scheduled for the third Tuesday of every month starting at 2:00 PM in the Georgetown Municipal Complex at 300 Industrial Ave. Conservation rates in effect As part of the City’s Water Conservation Plan, the City enters the first phase of its Drought Contingency Plan, Voluntary Conservation, on May 1 of each year. The City also enacts the Residential Conservation Water Rates on billings from June 1 through October 31. The increase in cost during this period is meant to provide incentive to conserve during the peak demand period. Any additional revenue is used to finance the construction of water capacity projects to serve the peak demand. The most effective method for conserving water is to control use of water for landscape irrigation. Use of water for irrigation causes the peak demand in the summer that puts a strain on the system and eventually requires the installation of expensive treatment facilities. For best results, irrigate no more than three times per week between the hours of 7 p.m. and 10 a.m. Watering during the late evening and early morning hours also minimizes the water lost to evaporation. The three times per week schedule is provided on our website located at www.georgetown.org. Water Conservation Pilot Program GUS conducted a water conservation pilot program during the summer of 2008. The purpose of the program was to assess the impact of water use feedback and a new irrigation schedule on customer irrigation use. The City is in the process of adopting a three times per week irrigation schedule based upon customer address. Also under development is a usage feedback system using email to notify customers when certain thresholds are reached. The system will be available during the summer of 2009. Protect your drinking water The use of drinking water in many industrial processes requires the use of a functioning and properly-tested backflow prevention device. These devices prevent the inadvertent introduction of hazardous materials into the drinking water system by preventing flow of the material in the reverse direction. Each device must be tested at least annually with the test results reported to GUS. Please call 930-3558 for further information. Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. Sources include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity. Contaminants that may be present in source water before we treat it include: • Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife. • Turbidity, which has no health effects, can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms • Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, can be naturally occurring or result from urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming. • Pesticides & herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture and residential use. • Radioactive contaminants, which are naturally occurring. • Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and also can come from gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems. The TCEQ completed an assessment of our source water and results indicate that some of our sources are susceptible to certain contaminants. The sampling requirements for our water system are based on this susceptibility and previous sample data. Any detection of these potential contaminants will be found in the Water Quality Report. For more information on the Source Water Assessment and protection efforts, please contact us. Special population advisory Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water such as immuno-compromised persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice from their health care providers. EPA/Center for Disease Control guidelines on how to reduce the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants are available at: Safe Drinking Water Hotline: 1-800-426-4791. Water quality monitoring To ensure that tap water is safe to drink, the EPA prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. We treat our water according to the EPA regulations. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water, which must provide the same protection for public health. Water quality data The table in this report lists all the drinking water contaminants we detected during tests conducted from January 1 through December 31, 2008, unless otherwise noted. The state requires us to monitor for certain contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants are not expected to vary significantly from year to year. Therefore, some of the data, though representative of the water quality, is more than one year old. Este informe incluye informacion importante sobre el agua potable. Si tiene preguntas o comentarios sobre este informe en espanol, favor de llamar at tel. (512) 930-3558 – para hablar con una persona bilingue en espanol. Terms & Abbreviations AL: Action Level - the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow. MCL: Maximum Contaminant Level - the “Maximum Allowed” (MCL) is the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology. MCLG: Maximum Contaminant Level Goal - the “Goal” (MCLG) is the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety. N/A: not applicable NTU: Nephelometric Turbidity Units – measure of the clarity of water ND: not-detectable – laboratory analysis indicates that the constituent is not present. ppm: parts per million or milligrams per liter ppb: parts per billion or micrograms per liter TT: Treatment Technique – a required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water. Microbiological Contaminants Constituent MCL MCLG Highest Measurement Lowest Monthly % of samples meeting limits Violation (Y or N) Typical Source of Contamination Total Coliform N/A N/A 0 100 N Naturally present in the environment. Fecal Coliform N/A N/A ND 100 N Human and animal fecal waste Total Organic Carbon N/A N/A 3.41 100 N Naturally present in the environment Turbidity (NTU) TT 0.3 .40 100 N Soil runoff Inorganic Contaminants Constituent MCL MCLG Average Level Range of Detection Sample Date Violation (Y or N) Typical Source of Contamination Barium (ppm) 2 2 0.043 0.043 - 0.043 2004 N Discharge of drilling wastes; Discharge from metal refineries; Erosion of natural deposits Fluoride (ppm) 4 4 0.83 0.12 – 0.83 2005-08 N Erosion of natural deposits; water additive which promotes strong teeth; Discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories Nitrate (ppm) 10 10 2.52 0.24 - 3.45 2005-08 N Runoff from fertilizer use; Leaching from septic tanks, sewage; Erosion of natural deposits Nickel (ppb) 100 100 2.9 1.0 - 2.9 2004-08 N Erosion of natural deposits Chromium (ppb) 100 100 1.7 1.7 – 1.7 2004 N Discharge from steel and pulp mills; Erosion of natural deposits Lead and Copper Constituent Action Level 90th Percentile Sites exceeding Action Level Violation (Y or N) Typical Source of Contamination Copper (ppm) 1.3 0.447 0 N Corrosion of household plumbing systems; Erosion of natural deposits; Leaching from wood preservatives Lead (ppb) 15 5.3 1 N Corrosion of household plumbing systems; Erosion of natural deposits Disinfection and Disinfection By-Products Constituent MCL MCLG Average of All Sampling Points Range of Detected Levels Sample Date Typical Source of Contamination Chloramines 4.0 4.0 2.5 0.2-3.5 2008 Primary Disinfection for surface water Chlorine 4.0 4.0 1.8 0.6-3.6 2008 Primary Disinfection for ground water HAA5 Haloacedic Acids (ppb) 60 0 11.7 1.1-30.1 2008 By-product of drinking water chlorination THM Trihalomethanes (ppb) 80 0 25.9 8.2-40.9 2008 By-product of drinking water chlorination Unregulated Contaminants Constituent Average of All Sampling Points Range of Detected Levels Sample Date Typical Source of Contamination Chloroform (ppb) 5.5 1.1-13 2008 Bromoform (ppb) 1.37 0 – 3.3 2008 Bromodichloromethane (ppb) 5.3 0.8-11 2008 Dibromochloromethane (ppb) 4.3 1.6-6.8 2008 Perchlorate (ppb) N/D N/D 2008 Unregulated contaminants monitoring helps EPA to determine where certain contaminants occur and whether it needs to regulate those contaminants    This water quality report was prepared Georgetown Utility Systems and OMI, Inc.