Water report shows no quality violations
By Kathy Thomson
Albany water customers should have received a “2018 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report” this week showing that locally treated water meets or exceeds all federal drinking water requirements, and that there were no quality violations during the year 2018.
“They were all good this go-around,” said Albany water manager David Bales.
The report shows a testing violation from 2017, which was corrected almost a year ago.
Lead and Copper
“We are required to monitor the drinking water for specific contaminates on a regular basis, including sampling for lead and copper every three years,” said Bales.
He explained that he never got the notices that those water samples were due until after the testing period had elapsed.
The samples should have been taken between June 1 and Sept. 30, 2017. Instead they were taken between June 1 and Sept. 30, 2018.
“The levels of lead and copper were all good,” said Bales.
Bales said that he has little control over the sample level of lead or copper because those contaminates typically enter the system by corrosion of household plumbing systems and the erosion of natural deposits.
Bales added that any homeowners that still have lead plumbing should allow their water to run for a minute or two before using it for drinking or cooking if they have allowed the water to sit in the pipes for several hours or more to flush out any lead or copper that has leached into the standing water.
Report Summary
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality require that all community public water suppliers deliver to their customers annual drinking water quality reports, telling consumers what contaminants have been detected in their drinking water, how these detection levels compare to drinking water standards, and where their water comes from.
Drinking water quality varies from place to place, depending on the condition of the source water from which it is drawn and the treatment it receives.
The local detailed report provides consumers with information about all aspects of Albany’s water treatment and a summary of the regular water sampling.
Readers of the report will notice that Gross Beta Emitters were last tested in 2016, while the other items were tested in 2018.
All by-products are not tested every year, according to Bales, and the date listed shows the most recent test for that specific contaminant.
The levels of all of the inorganic materials tested were well within the EPA guidelines for this year and no organic materials were found in the water supply except for disinfection by-products and naturally occurring organic carbon, which has no known health effects.
The raw water pH averaged 7.7, which is good, according to Bales. He said that when the pH is close to 7.5 there is less scaling and corrosion to pipes and equipment, but when it is higher, there is less leaching of lead and copper from pipes.
Bales added that local water quality, as in any system, always depends on the quality of the water from the source.
Albany currently obtains water from Hubbard Creek Reservoir, and has not used any water from Lake McCarty since 2000.
Confusing Report
Bales said that the required water quality report is confusing for most people.
“We’re required to tell customers that small amounts of some contaminants may increase health risks for people with certain conditions, but you would have to drink a lot of water for it to be a health hazard,” Bales said.
The bottom line is that the city is in compliance with everything that was sampled, and the overdue lead and copper samples were taken and tested during the next available sampling period, and those samples tested good.
The report also shows that the system lost an estimated 20,899,000 gallons of water during 2018, about three times as much as the 10,137,000 gallons of water lost during 2017.
The water losses are due to water leaks and water meters not properly reading all of the water usage, according to Bales.
Anyone who did not receive a quality report can contact City Hall at 762-3133 for more information.
Future Changes
Bales said that he is nearing retirement and does not know who will be responsible for the water treatment plant after he leaves.
“My understanding is that the city will probably hire a service company to come in and do it,” Bales said. “Hopefully that will work, but it may be a bit of a problem because our treatment plant is the only one like it in the state of Texas. Although there are other membrane plants, they are not like ours.”
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