City of Great Bend Water Quality Report

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We‘re very pleased to provide you with this year’s Annual Quality Water Report. 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. Our water source is 10 wells within the city limits that draw water from the Arkansas River Basin.

This report shows our water quality and what it means. If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Larry Jimison, Water Superintendent at 316-792-2957. 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 at the city building 1209 Williams, at 7:30 PM on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month.

The city of Great Bend routinely monitors for constituents in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws. This table shows the results of our monitoring for the period of January 1st to December 31st, 2000. 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 this 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:

• 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 - one part per billion corresponds to one minute in 2,000 years, or a single penny in $10,000,000.
• Picocuries per liter (pCi/L) - picocuries per liter is a measure of the radioactivity in water.
• Neohelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) - nephelometric turbidity unit is a measure of the clarity of water. Turbidity is excess of 5 NTU is just noticeable to the average person.
• 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.
• Specific Conductance - Conductance is a numerical expression of the ability of water to conduct an electric current. Because the number which is expressed as micromhos per centimeter, depends on the concentration of the dissolved minerals, conductance indicates the degree of mineralization in water.

TEST RESULTS
Contaminants	Violation Y/N	Level Detected	Unit of Measurement	MCL	MCLG	Date	Likely Source of Contamination
Microbiological Total Coliform	N	0		5%	0		Naturally present in environment
Chemicals Gross Alpha	N	7	pCi/1	15	0	1/00	Erosion of natural deposits
Inorganic Contaminants Arsenic	N	1	ppb	50	n/a	11/28/00	Erosion of natural deposits; runoff from orchards; runoff glass and electronics production wastes
Barium	N	0.04 Range .02-.06	ppm	2	2	11/28/00	Discharge of drilling wastes; discharge from metal refineries; erosion of natural deposits
Chromium	N	1.81 Range>1-11.5	ppb	100	100	11/28/00	Discharge from steel and pulp mills; erosion of natural deposits
Copper	N	0.36	ppm	1.3	1.3 Last faucet	8/00	Corrosion of household plumbing systems; erosion of natural deposits; leaching from wood preservatives
Fluoride	N	0.47	ppm	4	4	11/28/00	Erosion of natural deposits; water; additive which promotes strong teeth; discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories
Lead	N	5.2	ppb	15	0 Last faucet	8/00	Corrosion of household plumbing, erosion of natural deposits
Nitrate	N	8.93	ppm	10	10	11/28/00	Runoff from fertilizer use; leaching from septic tanks, sewage; erosion from natural deposits
Selenium	N	8 Range 3.7-16.5	ppb	50	50	2/1/97	Discharge from petroleum and metal refineries; erosion of natural deposits; discharge from mines
Synthetic Organic Contaminants Pesticides and Herbicides
Atrazine	N	0.25 Range 0-0.94	ppb	3	3	11/1/96	Runoff from herbicide used on row crops
Volatile Organic Contaminants
Tetrachloroethyene	N	0.5	ppb	5	0	3/12/97	Leaching from PVC pipes; discharge from factories and dry cleaners

Microbiological Contaminants:
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.

MCL’s 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.

Total Coliform: The Total Coliform Rule requires water systems to meet a stricter limit for coliform bacteria. Coliform bacteria are usually harmless, but their presence in water can be an indication of disease-causing bacteria. When coliform bacteria are found, special-up tests are done to determine if harmful bacteria are present in the water supply. If this limit is exceeded, the water supplier must notify the public by newspaper, television or radio. To comply with the stricter regulation, we have increased the average amount of chlorine in the distribution system.

Nitrates: as a precaution we always notify physicians and health care providers in this area if there is ever a higher than normal level of nitrates in the water supply.

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.

We at the City of Great Bend work 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.

NONREGULATED TEST RESULTS
Alkalinity 232.30 ppm	Aluminum 8.7 ppb	Calcium 111.15 ppm	Corrosivity –0.28 LI
Chloride 117.57 ppm	Iron 0.36 ppm	Magnesium 21.93 ppm	Manganese 11.8 ppm
Nickel 3 ppb	PH 7.49 ph-unit	Potassium 4.64 ppm	Silica 16.11 ppm
Silver <1 ppb	Sodium 126.88 ppm	Specific Conductivity 1351 umho/cm	Sulfate 238.85 ppm
Total Dissolved Solids 817.66 ppm	Total Hardness 367.686 ppm	Total Phosphorus 0.03 ppm	Turbidity <.50 NTU
Zinc 0.050 ppm