2003 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report

PWSID#00156

We’re very pleased to provide you with the Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.  We want to keep you informed about the excellent water and services we have delivered to you over the past year.  Our goal is and always has been, to provide to you a safe and dependable supply of drinking water.  Our water source is surface water from the Yellowstone River.  At the present time we serve approximately 5,775 people.  We are in the process of discussing a source water protection plan that will provide more information such as potential sources of contamination.

We’re pleased to report that our drinking water is safe and meets federal and state requirements.  If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water, please contact Rick Russell, Richard Koehn, George Schneider, Tony Reed, or Nick Baker. They are all certified operators with years of experience.  If they are not available, our secretary/bookkeeper, Barbara Berry Nies will have them return your call.  If you want to learn more about our water, please call us at 259-4120 or attend any of our regularly scheduled board meetings.  They are held on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm at 1644 Old Hardin Rd.

The water is treated with ferric chloride or alum, filtered, then chlorinated for disinfection prior to entering the distribution system.  Lockwood Water and Sewer District routinely monitors for constituents in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws.  The following table shows the results of any detects in our monitoring for the period of January 1^st to December 31^st, 2003.  For constituents that are not monitored yearly, we have reviewed our records back the last five years.

We have monitored for lead and copper, and all of our samples have been in compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule.

Date sampled

Parameter

90^TH percentile value

Unit of measurement

Action level

Source of contamination

8/7/02

Lead

12

ppb

15

Household plumbing

8/8/02

Copper

0.50

ppm

1.3

Household plumbing

In the tables above and below you will find many terms and abbreviations you might not be familiar with. To help you better understand these terms we've provided the following definitions:

Parts per million (Ppm) or Milligrams per liter (mg/l) - one part per million corresponds to one minute in two years or a single penny in $10,000.

Parts per billion (Ppb) or micrograms per liter (ug/L)-one part per billion corresponds to one minute in 2000 years or a single penny in $10,000,000.

Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) – A Nephelometric Turbidity Unit is a measure of the clarity of water.  Turbidity in excess of 5 NTU is just noticeable to the average person. 

Action Level - the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow.

Treatment Technique (TT) - (mandatory language) A treatment technique is a required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.

Maximum Contaminant Level - (mandatory language) 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.

Maximum Contaminant Level Goal - (mandatory language) 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.

Parameter

Units

Violation YES/NO

Highest single measurement

Value & date

Lowest monthly % of samples meeting the limits

MCL

Source of contamination

Turbidity

NTU

No

0.298 5/28/03

100% FOR ALL MONTHS

TT

Soil runoff

TEST RESULTS

Contaminant

Violation

     Y/N    

Sample Date

Highest

Level

Detected

Unit of

Measure-ment

MCLG

MCL

Likely Source of Contamination

Inorganic Contaminants

Fluoride

N

3/26/03

0.5

ppm

4

     4

Erosion of natural deposits; water additive which promotes strong teeth

Nitrate + nitrite as N

N

3/26/03

0.16

ppm

10

10

Runoff from fertilizer use.  Leaching from septic tanks, sewage, erosion of natural deposits

Organic Contaminants

73. TTHM (Total trihalomethanes)

N

3/26/03

21

ppb

0

100/80

By-product of drinking water chlorination

Our system had no violations. We’re proud that your drinking water meets or exceeds all Federal and State requirements.  We have learned through our monitoring and testing that some constituents have been detected.  The EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE at these levels. 

All sources of drinking water are subject to potential contamination by constituents that are naturally occurring or are man made.  Those constituents can be microbes, organic or inorganic chemicals, or radioactive materials.

All 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 the water poses a health risk.  More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

MCL’s are set at very stringent levels.  To understand the possible health effects described for many regulated constituents, a person would have to drink 2 liters of water every day at the MCL level for a lifetime to have a one-in-a-million chance of having the described health effect.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population.  Immuno-compromised persons such as 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 about drinking water from their health care providers.  EPA/CDC guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by cryptosporidium and other microbiological contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791). 

 We ask that all our customers help us protect our water sources, which are the heart of our community, our way of life and our children’s future.