Important Information about Your Drinking Water
/Turbidity Treatment Requirements Not Met
Lummi Island Scenic Estates Community Club (LISECC) ID #43290 - Whatcom County
Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this situation does not require that you should take immediate action, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct the situation.
We routinely monitor your water for turbidity (cloudiness). This tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. Water samples in November and December 2020 show that more than 5 percent of turbidity measurements were over 0.3 turbidity units – the standard is that no more than 5 percent of samples may exceed 0.3 turbidity units per month.
What should I do?
You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor.
People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people 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 the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791.
What does this mean?
Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, virus, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.
What about COVID-19?
COVID-19 has not been detected in drinking water. The Office of Drinking Water at the Washington State Department of Health and public water system operators work every day to protect public water supplies from bacteriological and viral contamination.
We use chlorine to disinfect your water. Chlorine is very effective in killing coronaviruses. COVID-19 is a coronavirus and the Department of Health believes chlorine will be effective in killing COVID-19 as well.
What happened?
The quality of our reservoir water changed, as happened during the summer and fall of 2019. Our treatment process is less effective during these conditions, resulting in higher turbidity in the drinking water. Because of improvements to the treatment plant and more effective coagulants we were able to avert a violation this year until the last few days of November.
What is being done?
We have been analyzing the reservoir since September by regularly taking samples at multiple depths to determine algal growth and other parameters. We will also begin using a UVT meter, as recommended by DOH, to measure natural organic matter in the water. This has helped other water systems treat drinking water in similar conditions.
Reducing the turbidity in our drinking water is our first priority.
We will notify LISECC customers as this problem is corrected.
Please share this information with other people who drink your water (for example, tenants and guests).
For more information, please contact Kevin Southworth, Operations Manager
phone: (360) 758-7055
email: kevin@lisecc.com
mailing address: 1211 Island Drive, Lummi Island, WA 98262
