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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 263-10TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM: CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: UTILITIES DATE: JUNE 7, 2010 CMR: 263:10 REPORT TYPE: INFORMATIONAL SUBJECT: Report on City's Water Quality Relative to Public Health Goals Established By California Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996 This is an informational report and no Council action is required. BACKGROUND California's regulatory drinking water standards protect the public from harmful substances. To keep drinking water safe, the California Legislature passed the Calderon-Sher Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996. This law requires the Department of Health Services (DHS) to test drinking water supplies every three years and set standards for contaminants in the water. The Act also requires the Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment to develop Public Health Goals (PHGs) for contaminants in California's publicly supplied drinking water. A PHG is the level of a chemical contaminant in drinking water that does not pose a significant risk to health. PHGs are not regulatory standards; however, state law requires DHS to set the maximum contaminant level as close to the corresponding PHG as is economically and technically feasible. Under the DHS requirement, information on contaminants found that exceed Public Health Goals must be provided to the public upon completion of every triennial test. The City of Palo Alto's drinking water system has been tested, and no contaminant level exceeded any of the published limits in the most recent year testing period. Discussion In compliance with the City's Water System Operator Pennit issued by Califomia Department of Public Health (COP H), the water distribution operators regularly collect and test water samples from reservoirs and various designated sampling points throughout the system. The purpose of sampling and testing the water is to ensure that the City's water quality meets or exceeds Federal (Environmental Protection Agency) and State drinking water standards. This sampling and monitoring is in addition to the sampling and testing that is conducted by the Water Quality Bureau of the San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC). During the past three years, staff has collected 3,855 samples from various locations within the City's water distribution system. CMR: 263:10 Page 1 of3 The water quality parameters that are regularly tested by staff fall into the following categories: • Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria (coliform as indicator). • Inorganic Contaminants (IOC) samples of Standby Wells: asbestos, nitrite, cyanide, and nickel (last tested in 2006, the City was granted a 9 year waiver! through 2015). • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) samples of Standby Wells: gas and volatile liquids (last tested in 2002, the City was granted a 9 year waiver through 20 II) • Synthetic Organic Chemicals (SOC) samples of Standby Wells: pesticides and herbicides (last tested in 2006, the City was granted a 9 year waiver through 2015). • General Mineral/General Physical samples of Standby Wells (last tested in 2006, the City was granted a 9 year waiver through 2015). • Disinfection By-products: TrihalomethanelHaloacetic Acids. • Radiological contaminant samples of Standby Wells (last tested in 2002, the City was granted a 9 year waiver through 2011). • Lead and Copper (last tested in 2008, the City was granted a 3 year waive1 through 20 II). • General Physical Samples: the physical characteristics of water (i.e. pH, chlorine, temperature, color, conductivity, turbidity, color). • Water Quality Samples: temperaturc, chlorine, pH, conductivity, alkalinity, calcium. FINDINGS: As a result of the tests conducted, the drinking water quality of the City of Palo Alto meets all California Department of Public Health and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. RESOURCE IMPACT None. POLICY IMPLICATIONS None. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW The actions summarized in this report do not meet the definition of a "project" pursuant to California Public Resources Code section 21065, thus no California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review is required. I Since all the wells are standby wells, the City is required to monitor for inorganic, organic, and radiological contaminants once every 9 years 2 For lead and copper monitoring, the City is currently on a triennial schedule. The last round was conducted in 2008, and the next round will be conducted in 2011. CMR: 263:10 Page 2 of) ATTACHMENT A. Water Sample Data for 2007, 2008 and 2009 PREPARED BY: JOHN REINERT Supervisor, Water Transmission & Distribution JAVAD GHAFFARI ~ Operation Manager, W«Oas & Wastewater ~, .. t3ii;;{f:£2;---.-'-----.. DEAN BATCHELOR REVIEWED BY: Assistant Director, Utilities Operations APPROVED BY: VAL~G Director, Utilities De artment CITY l\1Al'iAGER APPROVAL: CMR: 263:10 Page 3 of3 ATTACHMENT A CITY OF PALO ALTO WATER SAMPLE RESULTS FOR 2007, 2008 k~D 2009 Ch . I C d emlca ompoun s Chemical I Maximum Public Health 2007 2008 2009 Contaminated Goal(pHG) ! ! i Level (MCL), PPM : : ! ! I , Total 0.080 NA 0.029 0.036 ! 0.043 Trihalomethane (TTHM) i : I : : 'Haloacetic Acid I 0.060 NA 0.017 0.026 ! 0.024 (Hi\A) " Chemical Com ounds r Chemical~7=~A7-ct~io-n~L-ev-e~I--~D~L~R~I~n-st-e-ad~o~f-r'--~2~0707~~~~2700~8~------~2~0709~--~ , (AI), PPM Public Health Lead -90 th percentile . Copper 90th percentile 0.015 1.3 Goal(PHG) PPM 0.005 0.3 0.OOTo·003 ! 0.05 0.08 Requirement Waived until 2011 Requirement Waived until 2011 "'---c--=-:---L-~. Mel= Maximum Contaminant Lavel-the level of 8 contaminant that is allowable in drinking weier. Primary MCL's are set as close to PHG's as is economically and technically feasible. AL= Action Level-the concentration of a cantaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements that a water system must fa/low PHG= Public Heafth Goa/-the level of a contaminant in drinking water be/ow which there is no known or expected hea#h risk. DLR= Detection Limits for purposes of Reporting-a parameter that is set by regulation for each reportable analyte. Microbial Indicator Chemical ,m----=M-=-ax-j=-m-u-m------;! Public Caliform no more than 5% of samples collected . during any month MCL ! Contaminated Level i Health m (MCL), PPM rGOal(PHG) >5% 0 1= ifl'iomtioo of the Total Coliform " ,._-'-----~ ... 2007 2008 1% 3% , I 2009 1% Staff conducts Coliform monitoring at 72 locations. During the 2007-2009 reporting period, a total of 2,856 Coliform samples were collected from various sampling locations.