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2007 Water Quality Report
Consumer Confidence Report
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Valley Center Municipal Water District
2007 Water Quality Report
Este informe contiene información muy importante sobre su agua.
Tradúzcalo ó hable con alguien que lo entienda bien.
Valley
Center Municipal Water District is committed to supplying safe water that meets
or surpasses state and federal safety standards and achieves the highest
standards of customer satisfaction.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Department of
Public Health (CDPH) prescribe regulations that limit the amount of certain
contaminants in water provided by public water systems and require
the publication and distribution of this report to our customers and the
community we serve.
We are
pleased to report that the quality of water delivered by the Valley Center
Municipal Water District meets or exceeds all state and federal standards.
Your
tap water is safe to drink.
This
report is a snapshot of the water quality of the Valley Center M.W.D.’s water
deliveries in calendar year 2007.
Included are details about where the water comes from, what it contains, and how
it compares to the California Department of Public Health standards.
If you are interested in more information about your water supply or
water supplier, please feel free to contact our administrative offices at
760-749-1600, reach us on the world-wide web at “www.vcmwd.org” (which includes
links to Metropolitan and the
For
specific questions or information about water quality, please contact our Field
Operations Department and ask for
Water Quality Information
Generally, the sources of drinking water (both tap 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 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:
C
Microbial contaminants,
such as viruses and bacteria, that may come from sewage treatment plants, septic
systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.
C
Inorganic contaminants, such as
salts and metals, that can be naturally-occurring or result from urban
stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas
production, mining, or farming.
C
Pesticides and herbicides, which
may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban stormwater runoff,
and residential uses.
C
Organic chemical contaminants,
including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals that are by-products of
industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas
stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems.
C
Radioactive contaminants, which
can be naturally-occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining
activities.
Are there any precautions the public should consider?
As previously stated, the water supplied by the Valley Center Municipal Water
District meets State and Federal safety standards and is safe to drink. However,
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 water
poses a health risk. In
order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA and CDPH prescribe
regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by
public water systems.
More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained
by calling the USEPA’s
CDPH regulations also establish limits for contaminants in bottled water that
must provide the same protection for public health.
Some
people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general
population.
Immunocompromised 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/Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines on appropriate means to
lessen the risk of infection by cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants
are available from the
What is your water supplier doing to keep the tap water safe?
Under
the guidance of the CDPH, the Valley Center Municipal Water District regularly
conducts over 400 tests from 21 strategically positioned sample points to
guarantee a
safe level of disinfectant
residual and the
bacteriological safety of your
water supply. We also monitor our
supply for the levels of
Trihalomethanes and
Haloacetic Acids, which are disinfection byproducts and are suspected to
be human carcinogens. Finally, the
District administers an active and aggressive
Backflow Prevention Program, which
protects our water supply from the possibility of contamination coming from the
customer’s side of the meter.
In
addition to our water quality efforts, the Metropolitan Water District performs
over 300,000 analyses each year to
monitor over 115 contaminants and characteristics of its supplies, including
tests for water clarity (Turbidity), organic chemicals (pesticides, PCB’s),
volatile organic compounds, inorganic compounds, disinfection byproducts
(DBP’s), disinfectant residuals and radionuclides.
Metropolitan even monitors for
contaminants that are not yet regulated (i.e., assigned a safety limit) to help
EPA and CDPH to determine where certain contaminants occur and whether the
contaminants need to be regulated in the future.
Your Water Agency’s Source of Supply
For
the Valley Center Municipal Water District, your retail water supplier, the sole
source of water for our 25,620 customers is the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California (Metropolitan) through the aqueduct facilities owned and
operated by the
Metropolitan imports water into Southern California from two sources: a
242-mile-long aqueduct that brings Colorado River water from
In
December 2002, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California completed its
source water assessment of its
After
treatment at the Skinner Filtration Plant, the water goes into five aqueduct
pipelines and is delivered to the Valley Center Municipal Water District.
Once in the
2007 Water Quality Data - Valley Center Municipal Water District
Our water quality information for 2007 is listed in the tables on this page.
Contained in the table are the test results for clarity and
microbiological safety. Also
included are results for 14 semi-volatile, inorganic, and secondary standards
(aesthetic). Finally, the table
includes results for 16 unregulated and federally regulated contaminants, and
“other parameters” for which there are no current state or federal standards.
What do all the abbreviations mean?
A
number of abbreviations are contained on the Water Quality table which are
important to your understanding of the data, and those are:
Maximum Contaminant Level or MCL:
The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water.
Primary MCLs are set as close to the PHGs (or MCLGs) as is economically
and technologically feasible.
Secondary MCLs are set to protect the odor, taste, and appearance of drinking
water.
Maximum Contaminant Level Goal or MCLG:
The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no
known or expected risk to health.
MCLGs are set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Maximum Residual Disinfection Level
or MRDL.
Maximum Residual Disinfection Level Goal
or MRDLG.
Public Health Goal or PHG:
The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no
known or expected risk to health.
PHGs are set by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Primary Drinking Water Standard or PDWS:
MCLs for contaminants that affect health along with their monitoring and
reporting requirements, and water treatment requirements.
Secondary Drinking Water Standards (SDWS):
MCLs for contaminants that affect taste, odor, or appearance of the drinking
water. Contaminants with SDWS do
not affect the health at the MCL levels.
Regulatory Action Level (
Important!
2007 Water Quality Report
If
appropriate, please post this report so that others may review its contents.
Additional copies may be obtained by contacting the District at (760)
749-1600.
|
PARAMETER (a) |
Units |
MCL
(MRDL) |
PHG
(MCLG)
(MRDLG) |
|
Test Results Average |
Major Sources in
Drinking Water |
|
|
% |
NA |
NA |
32-35 |
43 |
|
|
PRIMARY
STANDARDS – MANDATORY HEALTH RELATED STANDARDS |
||||||
|
CLARITY |
||||||
|
Combined Filter
Effluent Turbidity |
NTU % |
0.3
95(b) |
NA |
Highest %
<0.3 |
0.13
100% |
Soil
runoff |
|
MICROBIOLOGICAL |
||||||
|
Heterotrophic
Plate Count (HPC) (i) |
CFU/mL |
TT |
N/A |
ND-3 |
ND |
Naturally
present in the environment |
|
Total
Coliform Bacteria (c) |
% |
5 |
0 |
0-1 |
1 |
Naturally
present in the environment |
|
Fecal
Coliform Bacteria and E. Coli (c) |
CFU/mL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Human and
animal fecal waste |
|
Cryptosporidium
(m) |
Oocysts/
200L |
TT |
0 |
ND |
ND |
Human and
animal fecal waste |
|
Giardia
(m) |
Cysts/ 200L |
TT |
0 |
ND |
ND |
Human and
animal fecal waste |
|
Total Curable
Viruses (m) |
P
or A/
1000L |
TT |
0 |
A |
A |
Human and
animal fecal waste |
|
SEMI-VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS |
||||||
|
Acrylamide |
NA |
TT |
0 |
TT |
TT |
Water treatment chemical impurities |
|
Epichchlorohydrin |
NA |
TT |
0 |
TT |
TT |
Water treatment chemical impurities |
|
INORGANIC
CHEMICALS |
||||||
|
Aluminum (n) |
ppb |
1000 |
600 |
ND-57 |
ND |
Residue
from water treatment process; natural deposits |
|
Copper (f)
(n) Tri-annual (2007) |
ppm |
|
0.17 |
90th
Percentile |
0.261 |
Internal
corrosion of household plumbing, erosion of natural deposits |
|
luoride
(s)
(naturally-occurring) |
ppm |
2 |
1 |
0.2-0.3 |
0.2 |
Erosion of
natural deposits; water additive for tooth health |
|
Fluoride (s)
Treatment-related |
ppm |
(s) |
1 |
0.5-0.9 |
NA |
water
additive for dental health |
|
Lead (f)
Tri-annual (2007) |
ppb |
|
|
90th
Percentile |
<5 |
Internal
corrosion of household plumbing; erosion of natural deposits |
|
Nitrate (as N)
(k) |
ppm |
10 |
10 |
ND-0.4 |
ND |
Runoff and
leaching from fertilizer use; sewage; natural deposits erosion |
|
RADIOLOGICAL (m) |
||||||
|
Gross Alpha
Particle Activity |
pCi/L |
15 |
0 |
ND-5.5 |
ND |
Erosion of
natural deposits |
|
Uranium |
pCi/L |
20 |
0.43 |
1.5-3.2 |
2.3 |
Erosion of
natural deposits |
|
DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS, DISINFECTANT RESIDUALS, AND DISINFECTION
BY-PRODUCTS PRECURSERS |
||||||
|
Total
Trihalomethanes (e) |
ppb |
80 |
NA |
33.3-60.6 |
47.0 |
By-product
of drinking water chlorination |
|
Haloacetic
Acid (d) |
ppb |
60 |
NA |
14.7-30.6 |
23.5 |
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