2016 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report

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For The

Seeley Lake Water District

P.O. Box 503,

Seeley Lake, MT, 59868

(406) 677-2559

We are pleased to present to you this year's Annual Water Quality Report. This report is designed to inform you about the quality of the water and services we deliver to you every day. Our constant goal is to provide you with a safe and dependable drinking water. We want you to understand the efforts we make to continually improve the water treatment process and protect our water resources. We are committed to ensuring the quality of your water. Our water source is Seeley Lake.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Vincent Chappell at 677-2559 or 210-3760. We want you, our valued customers, to be informed about your water utility. If you want to learn more, please attend any of our regularly scheduled meetings. They are held at 5:30 p.m. on the last Thursday of each month, at the Water District facility on Rice Ridge Road. The current elected members of the Water Board are as follows:

Charlie Hahn-President

Todd Johnson-Vice President

Kris Martin-Director

Chris Lorentz-Director

Freda Grimes-Director

If you have questions about the Water District any one of the Board members, Vincent Chappell, our Manager, or our employees will be happy to answer your questions or direct you to someone who can answer them for you.

Seeley Lake Water District routinely monitors for constituents in your drinking water, following all Federal and State laws. The table on the following page shows the results of our monitoring for the period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2015.

Some of our data in the tables is more than one year old, since certain chemical contaminants are monitored less than once a year. Our sampling complies with EPA and Montana State drinking water regulations.

In this table you will find many terms and abbreviations you might not be familiar with. To help you better understand these terms we've provided the following definitions:

Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) - nephelometric turbidity unit is a measure of the clarity of water. Turbidity in excess of 5 NTU is just noticeable to the average person.

Treatment Technique (TT) - A treatment technique is a required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.

Maximum Contaminant Level - The "Maximum Allowed" (MCL) is the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCL's are set as close to the MCLG's as feasible using the best available treatment technology.

Maximum Contaminant Level Goal - The "Goal" (MCLG) is the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLG's allow for a margin of safety.

Note: **Total Coliform. 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. On Sept. 8th we did have a coliform positive result. We immediately retested that site, as well as four other sites. These tests all were negative. Unfortunately this sometimes happens and is typically a fluke. This kind of bad sample can be the result of air getting in the sample, accidentally touching the sample bottle incorrectly, or not completely cleaning the sample tap during the testing procedure. There was nothing wrong with the water or the water system, it was just a bad sample result. There have been no further bad samples since.

Note: **Turbidity: The specified limit for our treatment process is 0.3 NTU's. Each month 95% of our measurements must be below this specified limit. This number represents the month with the lowest percentage of a sample meeting this limit. Our water system has met this requirement 100% of the time. Turbidity is a measure of cloudiness of the water. We monitor it because it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of our filtration system.

Note: *Haloacetic Acids: Total Haloacetic Acid is a by-product from our disinfection chlorine reacting with the natural organics in the water that we treat.

Note: Lead - If present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing.

The Seeley Lake Water District is responsible for providing high quality drinking water, but cannot control the variety of materials used in plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for 30 seconds to two minutes before using water for drinking or cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods, and the steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline or at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead

At this time we have no test sites that are in violation for lead.

The Seeley Lake Water District wants you to know that your drinking water is safe to drink and we will continue to work hard to keep it that way!

The Water District is doing everything that we can to protect our water system for you, the customer, to ensure safe clean drinking water. If you, the customer, see anyone or know of anyone tampering with equipment, valves, fire hydrants, buildings, or unlawfully using water or equipment please contact us at 677-2559, or contact 911 so that we can deter any damage or potential contamination of our water system.

The Water District employees have been doing everything possible to make our water system and water plant more efficient to supply you, the customer, with the safest possible water that we can. Over the last couple of years we have been doing everything we can to make our treatment process as efficient as possible. Part of this process is updating, cleaning and repairing what we already have. This last year we have done everything from clean and paint pipes to the rebuilding of major pumps. Luckily we have been able to do 90% of this work without any outsourcing. Whatever work we have outsourced we try to keep right here at home. It has been very rewarding to do this work and see the end product of our efforts. All this work helps the longevity of our system as well as its efficiency.

Unfortunately, the operation and maintenance of our water system costs money and those costs increase every year. On May 1, 2016 we had to implement a 5% rate increase. The last time the Water District raised the rates was July 1, 2009. During those last 7 years our operating costs have increased by over 20%. The increase is limited to the base fee and the water fee portions of your bill. The standard home has a 3/4" service, and the base fee on this will increase from $17.14 to $18.00. The water fee will increase from $2.20 to $2.31 per thousand gallons. The average customer using 6,000 gallons per month will see an increase on their water bill of $1.38.

The Water District did not want to have to implement these changes; however operating and maintenance costs continue to increase every year. One example of these cost increases is the cost for the polymer that we use to clean the water. The cost of this one item alone has increased by 150%. We are doing everything we can to keep our costs down. We continually look for ways to optimize our operation and minimize our losses. Our water loss this last year hit a record low of 1%. The national average for water loss is 35%. We strive hard to enhance our system to the best of our ability.

We encourage anyone to stop by and take a tour of our water plant so that you can see and understand all that you pay for and what we do. If you would like to tour the water plant please call ahead so that we can set aside some time to give the tour. If there is anything that we can do to serve you better please give me, Vincent Chappell, a call at 677-2559 or in cases of emergency call me at 210-3760.

We at Seeley Lake Water District work around the clock to provide top quality water to every tap. We ask that all of our customers help us protect our water source, Seeley Lake, which is the heart of our community, our way of life, and our children's future. Thank you for allowing us to continue providing your family with clean, quality water this year.

An Audit of the Water District has been conducted by JCCS. The Audit covered the following time period, January - December 2015. MCA 2-7-521 requires the publication concerning the audit report, including a statement that the audit report is on file in its entirety and open to public inspection at the Water District and that the Water District will send a copy of the audit report to any interested person upon request. The audit will be complete and on file, for your review, after April 30, 2015.

This Annual Quality Water Report will be mailed out to individual water customers. A copy of this report is available by calling or stopping by the Seeley Lake Water District.

 

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