Annual Drinking Water Quality Report

High Valley Water Company – 2009

We're pleased to present this year's Annual Drinking 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 supply of 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 sources are ground water.

The Drinking Water Source Protection Plan for High Valley Water Company is available for your review. It contains information about source protection zones, potential contamination sources and management strategies to protect our drinking water. Our sources have been determined to have a low level of susceptibility from potential contamination sources. We have also developed management strategies to further protect our sources from contamination. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about our source protection plan.

There are many connections to our water distribution system. When connections are properly installed and maintained, the concerns are very minimal. However, unapproved and improper piping changes or connections can adversely affect not only the availability, but also the quality of the water. A cross connection may let polluted water or even chemicals mingle into the water supply system when not properly protected. This not only compromises the water quality but can also affect your health. So, what can you do? Do not make or allow improper connections at your homes. Even that unprotected garden hose lying in the puddle next to the driveway is a cross connection. The unprotected lawn sprinkler system after you have fertilized or sprayed is also a cross connection. When the cross connection is allowed to exist at your home it will affect you and your family first. If you’d like to learn more about helping to protect the quality of our water, call us for further information about ways you can help.

We’re pleased to report that our drinking water meets federal and state requirements.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Karen Sawyer at 435-645-8415. We want our valued customers to be informed about their water utility. If you want to learn more, please attend any of our regularly scheduled meetings. They are held on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Trailside Recreational Building.

High Valley Water Company routinely monitors for constituents in our drinking water in accordance with the Federal and Utah State laws. The following table shows the results of our monitoring for the period of January 1^st to December 31^st, 2009. All drinking water, including bottled drinking water, may be reasonably expected to contain at least small amounts of some constituents. It's important to remember that the presence of these constituents does not necessarily pose a health risk.

In the following 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:

ND/Low - High - For water systems that have multiple sources of water, the Utah Division of Drinking Water has given water systems the option of listing the test results of the constituents in one table, instead of multiple tables. To accomplish this, the lowest and highest values detected in the multiple sources are recorded in the same space in the report table.

Parts per million (ppm) or Milligrams per liter (mg/l) - one part per million corresponds to one minute in two years or a single penny in $10,000.

Parts per billion (ppb) or Micrograms per liter (ug/l) - one part per billion corresponds to one minute in 2,000 years, or a single penny in $10,000,000.

Parts per trillion (ppt) or Nanograms per liter (nanograms/l) - one part per trillion corresponds to one minute in 2,000,000 years, or a single penny in $10,000,000,000.

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.

Action Level (AL) - the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow.

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

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

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

Date- Because of required sampling time frames i.e. yearly, 3 years, 4 years and 6 years, sampling dates may seem out-dated.

Infants and children who drink water containing lead in excess of the action level could experience delays in their physical or mental development. Children could show slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop kidney problems or high blood pressure. Lead in drinking water is rarely the sole cause of lead poisoning, but it can add to a person's total lead exposure. All potential sources of lead in the household should be identified and removed, replaced or reduced.

All sources of drinking water are subject to potential contamination by constituents that are naturally occurring or man made. Those constituents can be microbes, organic or inorganic chemicals, or radioactive materials. All drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

MCLs are set at very stringent levels. To understand the possible health effects described for many regulated constituents, a person would have to drink 2 liters of water every day at the MCL level for a lifetime to have a one-in-a-million chance of having the described health effect.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population. Immuno-compromised persons such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. EPA/CDC guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by cryptosporidium and other microbiological contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791).