The main source of drinking water for the Morgantown area is surface water from the Monongahela River, which supplies 90.5 percent of the area's drinking water. The remaining 9.5 percent of our raw water supply is taken from Cobun Creek Reservoir.
The average amount of water MUB treats per day is 10.5 million gallons. Naturally, this amount varies according to WVU's schedule and the student population. To understand how much water this is, consider the following:
- If you took the water MUB processes every day and filled gallon milk jugs, then placed those milk jugs side-by-side they would stretch from Morgantown to Dallas, Texas. In a year, the milk jugs could stretch around the globe almost 16 times.
- If you stacked those milk jugs on top of one another they would be as tall as 7,571 Empire State buildings. That’s the equivalent to a building that’s 946,354 stories tall (the Empire State building is 102 stories tall).
- I you took the water MUB processes in a year and filled one-gallon milk jugs, then stacked those milk jugs on top of one another, they would reach to the moon, back again, and almost back to the moon.
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that is proven to protect against tooth decay. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when you eat foods that contain sugars and other refined carbohydrates, certain bacteria in the mouth produce acid. This acid removes minerals from the surface of the tooth, eroding enamel and causing tooth decay. Fluoride protects against this process by stopping or even reversing the tooth decay process. It helps to remineralize tooth surfaces and prevents cavities.
Adding fluoride to water helps protect teeth not only when you drink water but also when you consume items prepared with fluoridated water. This provides teeth with almost constant exposure to fluoride all day long.
This is important because toothpaste only exposes teeth to fluoride for 1-2 hours after brushing. Fluoridated water picks-up the slack for the reminder of the day. The results are fewer cavities or less severe cavities, fewer fillings and tooth loss, and less pain and suffering from tooth decay.
In fact, the benefits of water fluoridation are so significant that the CDC has recognized water fluoridation “as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.” This claim is backed by the American Dental Association which states that the organization “unreservedly endorses the fluoridation of community water supplies as safe, effective and necessary in preventing tooth decay. This support has been the Association's position since policy was first adopted in 1950.”
The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources revised their recommended water fluoridation levels in January 2011 to 0.7 (seven-tenths) milligrams per liter. This updated recommendation is based on EPA and scientific assessments to balance the benefits of preventing tooth decay while limiting any unwanted health effects.
Because the amount of naturally occurring fluoride in the Morgantown area is less than this recommended amount, MUB supplements the amount of fluoride in our water. Shortly following the newly revised federal recommendations, reduced its average finished fluoride level from 1.0 mg/l to 0.7 mg/l.
For additional information on fluoride in water please visit the below links. For group tours of our water and waste water treatment plants please contact Chris Dale at cdale@mub.org or directly at 304-225-3658.
