DRINKING WATER STANDARDS
The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 (SDWA) created the US EPA and charged it with regulating the nation’s public drinking water supply.
NATIONAL
PRIMARY DRINKING WATER STANDARDS
The Primary Standards set enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for particular contaminants in drinking water or required ways to remove contaminants. The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) sets the standards based on science of the health risks, best available technology and costs.
STATE
PUBLIC HEALTH GOALS
The Public Health Goal (PHG) is the level of a contaminant at which there is no significant risk to health. PHGs are non-enforceable goals established by California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and are based solely on health effects. PHGs are developed using the best available data in current scientific literature.
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SECONDARY DRINKING WATER STANDARDS
The Secondary Drinking Water Standards are also set by the US EPA. These standards regulate compounds that affect the aesthetic qualities of water, including taste, color and odor. For these standards there are both MCLs and MCL Goals (MCLGs)
The water we deliver meets or exceeds the standards set by these laws. Click here to see how we did.
DETECTION LIMITS
The instruments we use to measure various contaminants are not perfect. If concentrations are too low, our instruments will not be able to detect them. This is one reason we can never say that we have zero contamination. Instead, we say that the concentrations are so low, that we did Not Detect (ND) a high enough level to be able to report it.
TREATMENT TECHNIQUE
Some contaminants are not regulated by MCLs. Instead, treatment plants are required to use well-established water treatment methods, or Treatment Techniques (TT), that are known to be effective at removing or preventing contamination. For example, lead comes from corrosion (rusting) of lead service lines in your home - not from the source water. To prevent corrosion, the water treatment plant will control the pH and add certain chemicals to the water. This is the Treatment Technique for preventing lead contamination in your water.