Copies are available at the city office or by calling 794-3650

2001 Drinking Water Quality Report

Center, North Dakota

Made available June of 2002

The City of Center is very pleased to provide you with the fourth annual Drinking Water Quality Report, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). We want to keep you informed about the excellent water and services we have delivered to you over the past year. Our goal is and always has been to provide to you a safe and dependable supply of drinking water.

This report shows our water quality and what it means. It also contains required definitions of terms, language requirements, tables of water quality data, and other pertinent information you will hopefully find interesting and educational.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Janell Peterson, City Director, at 794-3650 or at her office in the Civic Center building. 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 city meetings held on the first Monday of every month at 7:00 PM in the Civic Center.

The City of Center would appreciate it if large volume water customers post copies of this Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) in conspicuous locations or distribute them to tenants, residents, patients, students, and employees, so individuals who consume the water, but do not receive a water bill can learn about our water system.

Our water source is ground water supplied by wells. Our wells draw from the Square Butte Creek Aquifer. We also have a Wellhead Protection Plan available from our office that provides more information, such as, potential sources of contamination.

The sources of drinking water (both tap and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land, or through the ground, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

The City of Center routinely monitors for contaminants in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws. The enclosed tables show the results of our monitoring for the period of January 1^st to December 31, 2001. As authorized and approved by the EPA, the state has reduced monitoring requirements for certain contaminants to less often than once per year because the concentration of these contaminants are not expected to vary significantly from year to year. Some of our data, though representative, is more than one year old.

Contaminants that may be present in source water include:

Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife.

Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil production, mining, or farming.

Pesticides and herbicides, which come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff and residential uses.

Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff and septic systems.

Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water that must provide the same protection for public health.

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 (1-800-426-4791).

In the tables 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:

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.

Picocuries per liter (PIC/L) – picocuries per liter is a measure of the radioactivity in water.

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 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. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs 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. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.

MCL’s are set at very stringent levels. To understand the possible health effects described for many regulated contaminants, 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.

EPA requires monitoring of over 80 drinking water contaminants. Those contaminants listed in the tables are the only contaminants detected in your drinking water.

As you can see by the table, our systems had no violations. We’re proud that your drinking water meets or exceeds all Federal and State requirements. We have learned through our monitoring and testing that some contaminants have been detected. The EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE at these levels.

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 (1-800-426-4791).

Thank you for allowing us to provide your family with clean, quality water this year. In order to maintain a safe and dependable water supply we sometimes need to make improvements that will benefit all of our customers. These improvements sometimes require rate structure adjustments.

The City of Center works around the clock to provide top quality water to every tap. We ask that all our customers help us protect our water sources, which are the heart of our community, our way of life, and our children’s future.

Abbreviations: ppb--parts per billion or micrograms per liter; ppm--part per million or milligrams per liter; NA--not applicable; pCi/L--picocuries per liter (a measurement of radioactivity); AL--action level.