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

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Answer the following questions:
  • What is the source of your drinking water?   Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?)
    • My drinking water comes from multiple sources, Denniston Creek, Denniston Groundwater, Pilarcitos Lake, Upper Crystal Springs Resivior, and Pilarcitos Creek. 




  • What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected?
    • The chemicals that I found in my water that were higher than expected were "Total trihalomethanes"-types of disinfectants. It had an average of 73c ppb and 80b ppb is the highest allowed by regulation.
  • What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water?
    • Chemical that I did not expect to find in the water was lead. The allowed level is 15 ppb and my lead level is 7 ppb. Within the healthy range, but higher than I expected. 
  • Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water? 
    • Trihalomethanes have been shown to have carcinogenic and negative reproductive effects
    • Lead has been shown to cause anemia, weakness, kidney and brain damage, and even death.
BLOG about your water quality
  • Where does your water come from? According to the Coastside County Water District website, "Water enters the system from two sources. In the north end of the District, it enters the Denniston Water Treatment Plant from the Denniston Project, near Half Moon Bay Airport. At Half Moon Bay, it enters the system via the Pilarcitos Pipeline and flows into the Nunes Water Treatment Plant. From there it flows into storage tanks for subsequent use in the system". 




  • What did you discover about your water quality?
    • Looking at the CCR, our water supply is well taken care of. Most of the chemicals listed on there were below or not detected in the sampled water. It did concern me, the level of Trihalomethanes but they were still below the allowed amount. Over all I am confident in the water that I am drinking.
  • Do you use a filter for your water?
    • No we do not.
  • What are you trying to filter out?
    • If we did use a filter, I believe we would be filtering out any other particles and bacteria that could have (although highly unlikely) slipped through the cracks. 

  • Do you drink bottled water?   How does this square with what you learned when you watched the Story of Bottled Water (see next exercise)? I do on occasion. If I forget to pack a water in a reusable bottle, I will purchase a bottle of water. However, I tend to reuse the bottle several times before recycling it. However, watching the Story of Bottled Water video really made me think about putting in the extra effort to take my reusable water bottle every time I leave. Even the thought of "recycling" that bottle of water I purchase seems ridiculous now because I am just "buying" into the bottled water industries' scam. I will make sure to always have my reusable bottle with me from now on. It has repercussions for the environment and others around the globe if I forget it.


Comments

  1. Daisy AlbarranSeptember 24, 2018 at 10:13 PM

    Hi Kera,
    I'm curious to know what the impact of the airport does to the water supply since it is near the treatment plant. It is also interesting to see what are considered "healthy" levels, I think any kind of lead in water is a risk. It does make me wonder whether we will ever get to the point where the water will be "crystal clean." Thanks for sharing your water supply!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 25, 2018 at 12:09 PM

    Hi Kera,

    I was also content with my city's CCR -- I think, for the most part, the Bay Area has high standards for clean water, which makes me think about the quality of tap water in other areas. Are people better off drinking bottled water in area with terrible water quality, or should they just invest in a filtration system? Also, bottled water is largely convenient for emergency situations, but I'm curious as to whether city emergency plans should distribute water thermoses instead -- and just have people fill them up at water stations.

    Carmen

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 2, 2018 at 8:57 AM

    Hi Kera,
    Thanks for sharing a very informative post about the water quality where you live. I was shocked by the amount of disinfectants that were present in my water and see that your water had a relatively higher rate of Trihalomethanes. I now that we need to disinfect the water but the fact that you discovered that this chemical is a carcinogen and also has negative reproductive effects is very concerning. I wonder how easy it is for the amount of chemicals to increase and how long it takes to be noticed and alert those who are using the water. I do agree though that the CCR report provided a lot of information and was assuring that counties are being proactive in protecting the water and testing the chemical levels frequently.

    ReplyDelete

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