M5.4 Blog about your Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) and water quality

• Where does your water come from? The source! Track it from the source to your tap.

The City of Plano purchases surface water from the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD). NTMWD serves more than 1.6 million people across 90 communities in 10 counties. NTMWD gets raw water from Lavon Lake and treats it at the Wylie Water Treatment Plant. In addition to Lavon Lake, located in Collin County, NTMWD also obtains raw water from Lake Texoma on the TexasOklahoma border and the East Fork Water Reuse Project, located along the East Fork of the Trinity River. NTMWD also has water rights to, and obtains raw water from, Jim Chapman Lake (originally named Cooper Lake) on the South Sulpher River in Delta and Hopkins counties and Lake Tawakoni on the Sabine River in Rains and Van Zandt counties. NTMWD owns and operates six water treatment plants, 573 miles of water transmission pipelines, nine pump stations and has water rights in four lakes to meet the existing water needs of its service area. To meet future water demands, NTMWD is in the final stages of the permitting process for the proposed Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir in Fannin County, which will eventually provide 120,000 acre-feet of water per year to residents in North Texas. Please visit NTMWD’s website at ntmwd.com or call NTMWD at 972.442.5405 for detailed information on our water sources, treatment processes and more.

• What did you discover about your water quality?

Our Public Works team is responsible for the quality of our water. They test the water quality to ensure that it meets required standards. One of the required standards is a residual of disinfectant as the water is delivered to our customers. The NTMWD adds chloramines (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) to the water supply at its treatment plant in Wylie. Chloramines are designed to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria, but they gradually lose their disinfectant properties.

Many cities, including Plano, flush hydrants to improve water quality. The process of flushing hydrants is effective because it allows us to address specific areas of the system – right down to a city block where problems are occurring. We flush the system until the water quality improves.

Contaminants that may be present in source water include:

• Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife. 
• Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming. 
• Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm runoff and residential uses. 
•  Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff and septic systems. 
• Radioactive contaminants can be naturally occurring or the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

• Do you use a filter for your water?

  I live in an apartment, Unfortunately, I don't use any kind of filters.

• What are you trying to filter out?

While the tap water travels for miles inside the pipes, it will trap some contaminants, pesticide chemicals, also, it contains chlorine and ammonia.

The usage of filter will be important to eliminate contaminates and decrease the level of chlorine.

• Do you drink bottled water?   How does this square with what you learned when you watched the Story of Bottled Water?

Yes, I am using bottled water to drink and tap water to cook. I already tried to drink tap water but it has a bad taste, but after knowing all these information, I'll try to do my best and start drinking tap water instead of the bottled water ( that may contains, E. coli, no assessment for quality, can be just tap water, in addition to the plastic of the bottles).

References
http://www.plano.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24821
http://www.plano.gov/1503/Water-Quality-Information
https://www.thedailymeal.com/drink/10-reasons-you-shouldn-t-drink-bottled-water-slideshow/slide-7