Customers of Eastsound Water Users Association (EWUA) and Washington Water Service Company’s (WWSC) Rosario system may have recently noticed the improved quality of water coming from the tap. But, if you didn’t, that’s okay. Water produced by these utilities already meets or exceeds strict water quality standards. Most often, we, as customers, don’t pay much heed when we turn on the water unless there are problems like discoloration, low pressure, or some other water-related controversy.
However, a performance-based training from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) over the past year involving these and four other utilities in San Juan County (Blakely, Roche Harbor, the Town of Friday Harbor, and Spring Point) has greatly enhanced surface water treatment plant performance and increased operators’ understanding of processes unique to each plant. This DOH -unded training wraps up on January 30 on Orcas Island.
The water quality from your Eastsound or Rosario tap now meets much more stringent parameters than those currently required by regulatory agencies. An important area where this improvement has occurred is known as turbidity. Turbidity is a physical characteristic of water caused by suspended matter that clouds the clarity of the water. Water may also have color, but this is different than turbidity. Elevated turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms, like harmful bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Turbidity can also interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Outbreaks of waterborne disease in this country in the last 20 years have been linked to elevated levels of drinking water turbidity.
Turbidity removal is of primary concern to the certified water treatment plant staff of San Juan County. Turbidity is meticulously monitored by plant operators and is reviewed by the DOH because it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of the plant’s filtration system. Regulations require that filtered water from full-scale water treatment plants have turbidity measurements that never exceed a value of 1.0, and are below a value of 0.3 in 95 percent of all samples.
Moving far beyond these minimum criteria, EWUA and WWSC now consistently produce drinking water with turbidity measurements not to exceed a value of 0.3, with values below 0.1 in greater than 95 percent of all daily peak values. This much more stringent voluntary standard was achieved through management support, application of special studies unique to each plant conducted by operational staff, and advice from a DOH facilitator.
Washington State DOH’s very proactive approach to safeguarding public health was enthusiastically embraced by participating utilities. Applications of this training have moved these water treatment plants into the top tier of plant performance in the state and nation. Most importantly, water delivered to your tap from these systems meets higher quality standards than were previously thought possible.
On behalf of participating water system operators in San Juan County we offer the DOH staff our appreciation for sharing their expertise. Feel free to contact your specific water system for more information.
Ken Salt is foreman of the Washington Water Service Company’s and Paul Kamin is General Manager of the Eastsound Water Users Association.
