2005 Annual Drinking
Water Quality Report
Town of
Blowing Rock
PWS ID# 01-95-020
We are pleased to present to you this year's Annual Drinking Water
Quality Report. This report is a snapshot of last year’s water quality.
Included are details about from where your water comes, what it contains, and
how it compares to standards set by regulatory agencies. Our constant goal is
to provide you with a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. We want you
to understand the efforts we make to continually improve the water treatment
process and protect our water resources. We are committed to ensuring the
quality of your water and to providing you with this information, because
informed customers are our best allies.
What
EPA Wants You to Know
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. More information about contaminants and potential
health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency's
Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791).
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).
The sources of drinking water (both tap
water and bottled water) 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, in some cases,
radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of
animals or from human activity. Contaminants that may be present in source
water include microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria,
which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural
livestock operations, and wildlife; inorganic contaminants, such as
salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm
water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas
production, mining, or farming; pesticides and herbicides, which may
come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff,
and residential uses; organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic
and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes
and petroleum production, and can also come
from gas stations, urban
storm water runoff, and septic systems; and radioactive contaminants,
which can be naturally-occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and
mining activities.
In order to
ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations which limit
the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems.
FDA regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water which must
provide the same protection for public health.
When
You Turn on Your Tap, Consider the Source
The water that is used by this system is surface
water. Our water is drawn from the town
reservoir, which is located on land that is leased from the Park Service. The water is treated at the Town of
The
North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Public
Water Supply (PWS) Section, Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) conducted
assessments for all drinking water sources across
The
relative susceptibility rating of each source for Town of
Susceptibility of Sources to
Potential Contaminant Sources (PCSs)
|
Source Name |
Susceptibility Rating |
SWAP Report Date |
|
|
Moderate |
March 22, 2005 |
The
complete SWAP Assessment report for Town of
It
is important to understand that a susceptibility rating of “higher” does not
imply poor water quality, only the systems’ potential to become contaminated by
Violations that Your Water System Received
for the Report Year
During 2005, or
during any compliance period that ended in 2005, we received a violation that
covered the time period of July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. The
total haloacetic acid running annual average (RAA)
concentration of the waters samples collected during this period exceeded the
established MCL of 0.060 mg/liter. No
samples since that time period have exceeded the established MCL of 0.060
mg/liter. We are making every effort
possible to assure this does not happen again.
What
If I Have Any Questions Or Would Like to Become More Involved?
If you have any
questions about this report or concerning your water, please contact Tom McRary at 828-295-5225. We want our valued customers to be
informed about their water utility. If you want to learn more, please attend
any of our regularly scheduled meetings. They are held on the second Tuesday of
each month at
Water
Quality Data Table of Detected Contaminants
We routinely
monitor for over
150 contaminants in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws.
The table below lists all the drinking water contaminants that we detected in the last round of sampling for the particular
contaminant group. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily
indicate that water poses a health risk. Unless
otherwise noted, the data presented in this table is from testing done January
1 through December 31, 2005. The EPA or 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.
Some of the data, though representative of the water quality, is more than one
year old.
Unregulated contaminants are those for which
EPA has not established drinking water standards. The purpose of unregulated
contaminant monitoring is to assist EPA in determining the occurrence of
unregulated contaminants in drinking water and whether future regulation is warranted.
Important
Drinking Water Definitions:
Not-Applicable (N/A) – Information not applicable/not required
for that particular water system or for that particular rule.
Non-Detects (ND) - Laboratory analysis indicates that the
contaminant is not present at the level of detection set for the particular
methodology used.
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 2,000
years, or a single penny in $10,000,000.
Picocuries per liter (pCi/L) - Picocuries per liter is a measure of the radioactivity in
water.
Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) - 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 (
Treatment Technique (TT) - A treatment technique is a
required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking
water.
Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) - 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 (MCLG) - 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.
Extra Note: MCLs 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.
Turbidity
|
Contaminant (units) |
MCL Violation Y/N |
Your Water |
MCLG |
MCL |
Likely Source of
Contamination |
|
Turbidity (NTU) |
N |
0.29 |
N/A |
TT = 1 NTU |
Soil runoff |
|
100% |
|
TT = percentage of samples <
0.3 NTU |
* Turbidity is
a measure of the cloudiness of the water. We monitor it because it is a good
indicator of the effectiveness of our filtration system. Beginning January
2005, the turbidity rule will require, for all systems, that 95% or more of the
monthly samples must be less than or equal to 0.3 NTU.
Inorganic Contaminants
|
Contaminant (units) |
Sample Date |
MCL Violation Y/N |
Your Water |
Range Low
High |
MCLG |
MCL |
Likely Source of Contamination |
|
Fluoride (ppm) |
11/2/05 |
N |
0.151 |
N/A |
4 |
4 |
Erosion of natural deposits; water
additive which promotes strong teeth; discharge from fertilizer and aluminum
factories |
|
Contaminant (units) |
Sample Date |
Your Water |
Range Low
High |
Secondary MCL |
|
Sulfate (ppm) |
11/2/05 |
10.5 |
N/A |
250 |
Unregulated VOC Contaminants
|
Contaminant (units) |
Sample Date |
Your Water |
Range Low
High |
|
Chloroform (ppb) |
1/05/05 |
7.4 |
N/A |
|
Bromodichloromethane (ppb) |
1/05/05 |
1.0 |
N/A |
Lead and Copper Contaminants
|
Contaminant (units) |
Sample Date |
Your Water |
# of sites found above the |
MCLG |
MCL |
Likely Source of Contamination |
|
Copper (ppm) (90th percentile) |
9/2003 |
<0.050 |
0 |
1.3 |
|
Corrosion of household plumbing systems;
erosion of natural deposits; leaching from wood preservatives |
|
Lead
(ppb) (90th percentile) |
9/2003 |
<3.0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Corrosion of household plumbing systems,
erosion of natural deposits |
Radioactive Contaminants
|
Contaminant (units) |
Sample Date |
MCL Violation Y/N |
Your Water |
MCLG |
MCL |
Likely Source of Contamination |
|
Alpha emitters (pCi/L) |
|
N |
5.9 |
0 |
15 |
Erosion of natural deposits |
|
Combined radium (pCi/L) |
|
N |
1.5 |
0 |
5 |
Erosion of natural deposits |
*
Note: The
Our water
system used Alt. 1 of the Alternate Compliance Criteria as the method to comply
with the disinfectants/disinfectant byproducts treatment technique
requirements.
Disinfection Byproduct
Precursors Contaminants
|
Contaminant
(units) |
Sample Date |
MCL/TT
Violation Y/N |
Your Water |
Range Low High |
MCLG |
MCL |
Likely Source
of Contamination |
|
|
Total Organic
Carbon (ppm) (TOC)-RAW |
Monthly |
N |
2.18 |
1.24 – 5.5 |
N/A |
TT |
Naturally
present in the environment |
|
|
Total Organic
Carbon (ppm) (TOC)-TREATED |
Monthly |
N |
1.01 |
<0.5 – 4.3 |
N/A |
TT |
Naturally
present in the environment |
|
Note: Depending on the TOC in our source water, the
system MUST have a certain % removal of TOC or must achieve alternative
compliance criteria. If we do not
achieve that % removal, there is an alternative % removal. If we fail to meet the alternative % removal,
we are in violation of a Treatment Technique
|
Alternative Compliance
Criteria (ACC) |
|
|
Alt. 1 |
Source Water
TOC < 2.0 mg/L |
|
Alt. 2 |
Treated Water
TOC < 2.0 mg/L |