IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Drinking Water Contains High Levels of Disinfection By-Products
NOTICE OF STANDARD MAXIMUM CONTAMINANT LEVEL (MCL) VIOLATIONS
The Sugarloaf Water Association, PWSID: ME0091690, water system recently violated drinking water standards. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do and what we are doing to correct this situation.
We are required to monitor your drinking water for specific contaminants on a regular basis. The locational running annual average (LRAA) is determined by averaging all the samples collected at a particular monitoring location during the previous four calendar quarters. The LRAA standard for Haloacetic Acid 5 (HAA5) is 60 ppb. Testing results for the 2nd quarter of 2019 show that our system exceeded the maximum contaminant level for HAA5 when calculating the LRAA.
The LRAA of HAA5 exceeded the MCL of 60 ppb at our system’s sampling location.
The LRAA was 81 ppb
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been, you would have been notified immediately. However, some people who drink water containing haloacetic acids in excess of the MCL over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.
What should I do?
It is not necessary to use alternate water; however, if you have specific health concerns, please contact your health care professional.
Steps We Are Taking:
To protect drinking water from disease-causing organisms, or pathogens, we add chlorine to the drinking water as a disinfectant. Chlorine reacting with natural organic matter in the water can cause disinfection byproducts (HAAs) to form. As a first step, we are working with Wright Pierce Engineering to increase the removal of naturally occurring organic matter from our source water during the treatment process.
We anticipate resolving the problem by 11/09/2019.