Inorganic Chemicals

Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, may be naturally occurring or the result of urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming.

The tables to the right present our testing for inorganic chemicals, including the likely sources of contamination for each parameter. Values listed as ND (non-detectable) were too small to be detected. Non-detectable means that the amount present, if any, was so small that it cannot be detected using the prescribed testing protocol established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That result is excellent and is what we would expect. One part per million (ppm) means that one pound of a substance can be detected in a million pounds of water. In other words, one part per million is approximately one drop per 10 gallons of water. One part per billion (ppb) is approximately one drop per ten thousand gallons of water.

Turbidity

Turbidity is generally thought of as the cloudiness of water. It is one way to measure the removal or inactivation of certain targeted microorganisms. At high levels it can impair the disinfection process. See the graph to the right.

Lead and Copper

Lead and copper analysis is performed once every three (3) years, on water samples throughout our water distribution system. Our analysis for 2019 showed that the 90th percentile of the ranked analysis results were, 0.8 ppb for lead and 0.0152 ppm for copper. All results were found to be well below the action levels as set by our state health department. Our next scheduled sampling for lead and copper is set for 2022. Results of our latest testing can be found at the below links:

Lead: https://mub.org/ccr-lead

Copper: https://mub.org/ccr-copper

If present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing. The system is responsible for providing high quality drinking water, but can not control the variety of materials used in plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap water 30 seconds to two minutes before using water for drinking or cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your drinking water, you may wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods and steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from Safe Drinking Water Hotline or at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead.