IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER CITY OF -XXXXX- DID NOT MEET TREATMENT REQUIREMENTS
0ur water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this situation does not require that you take immediate action, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened ; what you should dot and what we are doing to correct this situation. In order for surface water systems to endure proper disinfection, the water in the treatment plant must be in contact with chlorine or a similar disinfectant for a minim amount of time. Or supply was unable to meet the requirements during November 1, 2003 to February 29, 2004. During this time period all of the bacteriological samples collected at the treatment plant and the distribution system were good and passed all requirements.

What should I do?
You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. We do not know of any contamination, and none of our testing has shown disease-causing organisms in the drinking water. People with severely compromised immune systems, infants and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers, General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791.

What does this mean?
This situation does not require that you take immediate action. If it had been, you would have been notified immediately. Tests taken during this same time period did not indicate the presence of bacteria in the water.
Inadequale1y treated water may contain disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses and parasites, which can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea and associated headaches.

These symptoms, however, are not caused only by organisms in drinking water, but also by other factors. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.

What happened? What Is being done?
The EPA required the City of -XXXXX- to run a disinfection profiling at the treatment plant from July 1 a 2003 to June 30, 2004 to determine the log inactivation of Giardia and viruses. The calculations – for the disinfection profi1ing were sent to the EPA in July 2004, -XXXXX- received a letter dated December 3, 20P4 that we had demonstrated that 3-log Giardia and 4-Iog Virus inactivation was being achieved. -XXXXX- received a letter date March 21, 2005 stating that after the EPA had made changes to the requirements and had reevaluated our disinfection profile, -XXXXX- did not pass the profile. -XXXXX- recalculated the disinfection profiling per the new requirements and sent it to the EPA . -XXXXX- received a letter dated May 5, 2005 that we did not achieve the 3-Iog Giardia inactivation for November 1, 2O03 to February 29, 2004.

-XXXXX- has increased the disinfectant in the treatment plant to achieve the 3-log Giardia inactivation.
As a result of the changes in the requirements -XXXXX- began calculating the disinfection profile on May .9, 2005, and has successfully achieved the 3-log Giardia and the 4-log virus inactivation.

For more information, please contact (name withheld) at (number withheld) or write to Public Works Dept., 200 Fairview Ave., -XXXXX- .

Please share this information with all the other people who drink. This water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.

This notice is being sent to you by, City of -XXXXX- . State Water System ID#; xxxxxxx, Date distributed: 6/20/2005.

"Drink Me" it said to Alice: Testing the purity!

While they say that the water is safe to drink, always get a horrible image in my head. This disturbing though crosses my mind with every drink: I take a big gulp of water and feel a family of slimy little sea-monkeys parusing down my throat. Sliding down like a group of happy children at a Wet-and-Wild water park.

I don't really think that the water was harmfull. Especially since the townspeople were notified so readily. Being the conspiracy nut that I am, I imagine that if anything were truly terrible in the water, the city would have tried its damndest to cover it up. Instead, however, they sent out letters to the citizens. So it's not that I think our city is the epitome of evil, hunkering down in a throne besides satan or anything. It just disgusts me that they try to squeak through inspections by bringing the quality up to the absolute bare minimum allowed by law.

If you didn't have the patience to read though all of that mumbo-jumbo at the top of the page, (an who could blame you!), let me simplify it:

The EPA said that our water didn't meet standards. The city brought it up to the minimum standard. By the time the EPA came to check on it, the standards had increased and we failed again. This means that we only fixed the water well enough to meet the bare minimum standard allowed by law. And that the city doesn't try and keep up with changing rules and regulations that govern public safety.

Maybe we should carry this philosophy into all areas of city government. At least that would be fair, right? Yes, BARE Minimums for everything across the board! Like salaries for instance.

"I'm sorry Mr. Water Commissioner, but the townspeople have decided to pay you the bare minimum allowed by law. I believe that brings your salary to a grand total of $7,560." Yeah, I'm sure that wouldn't fly.

But, in order to show you the water purity, here is a little visual test that I performed nearly a year ago when the problem first began.

Test Stage 1: From the Tap

Here is our water straight from the tap. Notice the tiny little "floaty things" merrily spinning throughout it. Ahhh, looks refreshing doesn't it?