DRINKING WATER NOTICE
Tests Show Coliform Bacteria Present in Our Drinking Water

NOTICE OF STANDARD MAXIMUM CONTAMINANT LEVEL (MCL) VIOLATION

The Emerald Lake Village District water system recently violated a drinking water standard. 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. We took eight samples for coliform bacteria during August 2011. Five of those samples showed the presence of coliform bacteria. The standard is that no more than 1 sample (or 5% of samples for systems collecting greater than 40 routine samples per month) should test positive.

What does this mean?

This is not an emergency. If it had been you would have been notified immediately. Total coliform bacteria are generally not harmful. Coliforms are bacteria that are naturally present in the environment and are used as an indicator that other, potentially-harmful, bacteria may be present. Coliforms were found in more samples than allowed and this was a warning of potential problems.

Usually, coliforms are a sign that there could be a problem with the treatment or distribution system (pipes). Whenever we detect coliform bacteria in any sample, we do follow-up testing to see if other bacteria of greater concern, such as fecal coliform or E. coli, are present. We did not find any of these bacteria in our subsequent testing. If we had, we would have notified you immediately.

What should I do?

You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. You may drink the water. However, if you have specific health concerns, please contact your health care professional. General health related questions may be directed to Dave Gordon of the DES Environmental Health Program at (603) 271-4608.

People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, pregnant woman, and some elderly may be at increased risk and should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791.

Steps We Are Taking: Upon discovery of this problem, we added chlorine to the water storage tank and checked for a chlorine residual in the area the problem was located. We tested each of the eight wells that serve the system to confirm that the problem was not coming from our source waters. We increased the chlorine feed rate at the Meeting House well to provide some residual chlorine in the distribution system. We discovered a water leak and repaired it. We will continue to collect samples and monitor for bacteria.

For more information, please contact Keith Gilbert of Water System Operators, Inc. at 428-3525 or the Emerald Lake Village District at PO Box 2217 Hillsborough NH 03244.

Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.

PWS ID: 1141020