Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority - Surface Water Treatment Plant Source & Finished Water Monitoring

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Water Quality Report 2009

SWTP Src. & Finished Water Monitoring

Surface Water Treatment Plant Source & Finished Water Monitoring

After treatment, finished water is stored in two 10 million gallon below ground storage tanks. (one pictured in foreground).

Finished Water Monitoring at the San Juan-Chama Surface Water Treatment Plant

USEPA sets regulations that limit the amount of certain substances in drinking water. USEPA defines where and how often samples for each substance must be collected. The table below shows the substances found in compliance monitoring for the finished water at the Surface Water Treatment Plant. For surface water, USEPA also requires that specific treatment techniques are used and that the treatment techniques are effective.

2009 Results of Source and Finished Water Compliance Monitoring at the Surface Water Treatment Plant

Substance	Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL)	Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG)	Minimum Detected	Average Detected	Maximum Detected	Source
San Juan-Chama Surface Water Treatment Plant Source Water
Microbiological
Cryptosporidium*	TT	Zero oocysts/L	Zero oocysts/L	0.008 oocysts/L	0.1 oocysts/L	Human & animal fecal waste.
San Juan-Chama Surface Water Treatment Plant Finished Water
Microbiological
Turbidity A measure of cloudiness of the water. It is a good indicator of water quality. High turbidity can hinder the effectiveness of the filtration system.	1 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU)	Zero NTU	0.2 NTU	0.05 NTU	0.45 NTU	Soil runoff
	95% of the finished water samples must be less than 0.3 NTU	Zero NTU	Lowest monthly percentage: 99.4% of the finished water samples were less than 0.3 NTU			Soil runoff
Total Organic Carbon (TOC)	TT	Not Applicable	ND (<1 PPM)	1.6 PPM	4.8 PPM	Naturally present in the environment.
Disinfection By-Products
Bromate**	10 PPB	Zero PPB	ND (<0.5 PPB)	ND (<0.5 PPB)	13 PPB	By-product of drinking water disinfection with ozone.
Metals
Chromium	100 PPB	100 PPB	1 PPB	1 PPB	1 PPB	Erosion of natural deposits.
Minerals
Fluoride	4 PPM	4 PPM	0.5 PPM	0.5 PPM	0.5 PPM	Erosion of natural deposits.
Nutrients
Nitrate	10 PPM	10 PPM	ND (<0.1 PPM)	0.2 PPM	0.3 PPM	Erosion of natural deposits.
Substance	Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level (MRDL)	Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level Goal (MRDLG)	Minimum Detected	Average Detected	Maximum Detected	Source
Disinfectants
Chlorine	4 PPM	4 PPM	0.5 PPM	1.1 PPM	1.8 PPM	Disinfectant (sodium hypochlorite)
PPM = Parts Per Million PPB = Parts Per Billion Oocyst: A capsulated spore of Cryptosporidium. Treatment Technique (TT): A required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.
Cryptosporidium is a microbial pathogen found in surface water throughout the U.S. Water Authority monitoring in 2009 indicates these organisms are either absent from the source water or present in very low quantities (0 or 1 oocyst per 10 liters of river water). Based on the levels of Cryptosporidium found in source water, the USEPA requires water systems to use specific treatment techniques and to demonstrate their efficiency. The San Juan-Chama SWTP was designed to provide a multi-barrier approach (pre-sedimentation, clarification and filtration) to removing Cryptosporidium to meet the USEPA TT requirements. Current test methods approved by USEPA do not distinguish between dead organisms and those capable of causing disease. If ingested, these parasites may produce symptoms of nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. * For bromate, compliance is calculated based on the running annual average. The MCL is compared to the “average detected.” Bromate was not detected in 9 of 12 finished water compliance samples taken in 2009.

Regulated Substances we test for and have not detected in Surface Water Treatment Plant Finished Water

Metals/Minerals/Nutrients
Antimony Arsenic Barium Beryllium	Cadmium Cyanide Mercury	Nitrite Selenium Thallium
Organic Chemicals
Alachlor Atrazine Benzene Benzo(a)pyrene Carbofuran Carbon tetrachloride Chlordane Chlorobenzene 2,4-D Dalapon 1,2-Dibromoethane (EDB) 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP) Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate Dichloromethane o-Dichlorobenzene p-Dichlorobenzene 1,2-Dichloropropane	cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene 1,1-Dichloroethylene 1,2-Dichloroethane Dinoseb Dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) (waived) Diquat Endothall Endrin Ethylbenzene Ethylene dibromide Glyphosate Heptachlor Heptachlor epoxide Hexachlorobenzene Hexachlorocyclopentadiene Lindane Methoxychlor	Oxamyl (Vydate) Pentachlorophenol Picloram Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Simazine Styrene Tetrachloroethylene Toluene Toxaphene 2,4,5-TP (Silvex) 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene 1,1,1-Trichloroethane 1,1,2-Trichloroethane Trichloroethylene Vinyl chloride Total Xylenes
Microbiological Contaminants
Fecal Coliform	Total Coliform
Radiological Chemicals
Gross Alpha Particle Activity Radium 228	Gross Beta Particle Activity Uranium	Radium 226

Just How Safe Is It?

For many years, the Water Authority has monitored the Rio Grande to establish a water quality baseline. Samples are collected at various sites along the river from the Heron Lake outlet to Albuquerque’s diversion dam site. Heron Lake stores San Juan-Chama water.


It takes about three hours for water to travel from the diversion dam (pictured on left) to the settled water ponds at the surface water treatment plant. After settling for at least a day in the ponds, it only takes two or three hours of treatment to produce the clean, finished drinking water pictured on the right.

The monitoring results compare favorably to USEPA drinking water quality standards. Because no metals, minerals, or nutrients nor organic substances have been detected in excess of USEPA standards, river water will meet requirements for those substances. Likewise, levels of radionuclides detected in the river water are far below USEPA standards and the risk of radioactivity potentially flowing from Los Alamos is extremely low.

Water treatment will remove particulate matter from the water including turbidity, sediment and microbial contaminants such as bacteria, Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

Ozone and granular activated carbon filtration are effective in removing organics, including pharmaceutically active compounds that may have found their way into the river. If such compounds show up, they will be oxidized, then absorbed onto the filters.

Additional samples will be collected every year to determine water quality changes over time. This information will assist the Water Authority in modifying or refining treatment or identifying the need for additional treatment to ensure the high quality of our drinking water.