New Rule Requires Additional Public Notification
Our goal is to provide you with a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. More than 100,000 tests are performed on hundreds of substances each year to ensure that your drinking water is safe.
Samples are collected at different phases of the treatment process, both at the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and at hundreds of sites throughout our 583-mile distribution system. We follow a state-approved plan to gather samples at 347 different locations. Samples are collected two or three times a week; about 100 samples per month. Each site is sampled approximately four times a year.
Analyses of tests conducted in our laboratory and in commercial laboratories indicate that water treated by GUC meets all federal and state regulations. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain substances in water provided by public systems like Greenville Utilities. The regulations are part of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The state regulatory agency—the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR)—enforces these regulations through its Division of Environmental Health, Public Water Supply Section.
A new rule issued by state regulators has changed public notification requirements for certain substances. For public water systems like GUC, compliance with drinking water standards for many contaminants is based on an average or percentage of samples. Until recently, public notification has been required for all GUC water customers if a water quality standard was exceeded on an average/percentage basis for a 12-month period.
The new rule requires public utilities to provide written notification to the customer whenever their individual water sample exceeds EPA standards. Written notification must contain the test results and specific language on potential health effects.
Therefore, although GUC’s water system may be compliant with EPA standards on an annual basis, there may be occasions when individual customers receive a special notice entitled “Important Information About Your Drinking Water Sample.”
For example, the maximum amount of chloramines we are allowed to have throughout our distribution system is 4.0 milligrams per liter (mg/l). The standard is based on an annual average calculated from over 1,200 samples. Some individual samples during the hot summer months when bacteria are more abundant may be over 4.0 mg/l and other samples may be under 4.0 mg/l. But for the system to be compliant, the average of samples collected for the 12-month period cannot exceed 4.0 mg/l.
GUC’s system average for chloramines in 2006 was 3.4 mg/l, well within regulatory limits. The system was compliant, so no public notification was required. However, throughout the year, especially during the hotter months, individual samples ranged from a low of 1.1 mg/l to a high of 6.5 mg/l. Depending on where they live on our 583-mile distribution system, it is expected that some customers’ water will have a chloramines residual in excess of 4 mg/l. This is allowed by regulations. In fact, it is necessary in order to be certain that we maintain a minimum residual to protect every customer throughout our distribution system from outbreaks of water borne diseases such as cholera.
But, under the new rule, each customer whose individual sample exceeded 4.0 mg/l would have received a letter from GUC with the test results and information on potential health effects of high levels of chloramines.
To comply with the new rule, GUC will be sending notification to individual customers in the event that their samples ever exceed EPA limits. If you receive a notification from us and have concerns about the information, please 329-2160 and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
For additional information about water quality issues, please use the following resources and links:
• EPA Hotline at 1-800-426-4791 or www.epa.gov
• NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources at 919-733-2321 or http://www.enr.state.nc.us/