IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Tests Showed Coliform Bacteria in Winchendon Water
Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this incident was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we did to correct this situation.
We routinely monitor for drinking water contaminants. We took 11 samples to test for the presence of coliform bacteria during May 2009. Three of our samples showed the presence of total coliform bacteria. The standard is that no more than 1 sample per month may do so.
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 EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791.
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been, you would have been notified immediately. Coliform bacteria are generally not harmful themselves. Coliforms are bacteria which 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.
Usually, coliforms are a sign that there could be a problem with the system’s treatment or distribution system (pipes). Whenever we detect coliform bacteria in any sample, we do follow-up testing to see if other bacteria of greater concern, such as fecal coliform or E. coli, are present. We did not find any of these bacteria in our subsequent testing, and further testing shows that this problem has been resolved.
What happened? What was done?
The bacteria may be due to zero or very little chlorine residual being present in the drinking water in these areas or possibly to the contamination of samples bottles used to collect water samples.
The Water Department has flushed the ends of the system to pull chlorinated water to the far end of the distribution system to respond to the bacteria counts. Both the Town of Winchendon and the Department of Environmental Protection will evaluate the effectiveness of the steps taken to see if any further action is required. Resamples taken on May 7, 2009 showed no presence of coliform bacteria throughout the distributation system.
For more information, please contact The Winchendon Water Department at 978-297-0170 or 109 Front Street, Winchendon MA, 01475.
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
This notice is being sent to you by Winchendon Water Department. PWS ID#:2343000 June 3, 2009
