Recently, the City of Salem’s utility committee has been discussing drinking water testing following complaints from concerned citizens about the water quality, several citing cloudy water. In the last meeting of the committee on August 9, they reviewed quotes from a testing laboratory to test for various contaminants, above and beyond what is required by regulation. The tests are not cheap—and committee members ultimately took no action on the quotes at the time of the meeting. After reviewing the quotes for testing, the committee heard from city staff about the methods and schedules used to test Salem’s water for contaminants. The topic of water quality and testing had also been brought up in previous meetings.
The committee discussions and citizen complaints have sparked more questions among some area residents, who have questions about their tap water quality. In past city meetings, individuals have had questions about where water quality reports can be found. Other citizens have submitted water samples to be tested through the Dent County Health Center.
Dent County Health Center Administrator Zach Moser sat down with The Salem News to discuss the health ramifications of the test results from the Salem Public Water System, as well as results from the testing of four samples submitted by citizens and taken at private properties further down the water line.
“This is not something that we normally do, because this is really private residences on public water. Anybody can go test water. You can do it yourself, there’s no legal process involved with that. Our relationship with the State Public Health Lab is kind of what dictates what we’re able to do, and that’s just because of their rules on what their resources are allowed to be allocated for.”
Unlike some other areas which purify water from lakes and reservoirs, Salem’s water supply comes from a series of wells, which pull water up from deep within the ground. The water is not fluoridated and is disinfected with a specific amount of chlorine. From the City of Salem’s website:
“The city has five deep wells for water supply. Other than chlorine injection, there is no treatment of the water. The water in Salem is tested in accordance with the Clean Drinking Water Act.”
There are several resources available to the public to view water test results that are performed on a set rotation schedule. The Salem Public Water System issues a yearly water quality report called a Consumer Confidence Report, to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Contained within the CCR are results from a gamut of tests for contaminants. Also, citizens can view details about the system and a wide range of tested contaminants through the Missouri DNR’s Water System Search. Citizens can use the tool to view testing schedules, contaminant thresholds, and test results. Tests are scheduled based on how hazardous the contaminant is, and how likely that reading is to fluctuate, according to discussion from past utility committee meetings. For example, if a contaminant was tested yearly for several years without a major change in readings, testing may be reduced to every two or three years. Many of the regulations governing drinking water testing come from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Moser said the results of the most recent CCR and the samples from private property show safe drinking water. One cause for concern among citizens has been cloudiness in the water, which city staff during utility committee meetings have attributed to natural sediment being stirred up during hydrant flushes or line breaks, or to potential issues with the plumbing in private residences. Some of the test results from private residences had higher levels of certain contaminants such as copper, iron, or aluminum; which, according to Moser, are not harmful in the amounts present.
“To me, these reveal that the water is pretty good, actually. This sample in particular, which is the one that has 1.1 mg/L [Milligram per liter] of iron and 1.8 mg/L of aluminum. That sample, you could tell there was something in it. Iron and aluminum, these are secondary drinking water standards, they fall under that. They are not considered harmful to health in drinking water,” said Moser. “These standards are set for these, for iron and aluminum and copper, and a few others like that, not because of public health, but because if they’re too high, they change the color of the water; people don’t like the way it looks, don’t like the way it tastes, or smells. So, it’s not that it hurts you, people just don’t like it.”
To Moser, the results of some of the tests suggest that the minor contaminants might be eroding from piping, either from old plumbing in private residences or from the city water pipes as pressure fluctuates with usage.
“These contaminants that you’re seeing, there’s a very high chance that’s coming from plumbing somewhere. Either in the city’s lines, or backflowing from people’s houses. We have city water here [at DCHC], we never have any issue with it,” he said. “It’s not impossible that [individuals] could legitimately be having problems, but to me, these results are pretty clear that if it is, it’s stuff that’s natural from the inside of the pipes. Our water has iron around here, has iron in it normally. To me, it’s nothing I would be worried about. Yeah, I don’t want to drink cloudy water, so run the tap for five minutes and get clear water. Or, buy a whole house filter.”
City utility staff has also said during past utility committee meetings that cloudiness is not necessarily an indication of contaminants that are detrimental to health. While iron, copper, and aluminum don’t make the water unsafe according to Moser, had the results shown hits on some of the other elements tested for, the story might be different. Moser talked about some contaminants that would be a cause for major concern if they had been present. Moser listed arsenic, antimony, barium, and mercury as being able to enter the system through groundwater contamination. He also listed chloride, chlorine in high amounts, antimony, asbestos, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper at levels of 1.3 mg/L or higher, cyanide, mercury, nitrate, nitrite, thallium, selenium, and fluoride as other contaminants that would be of greater concern.
“For public water systems, of course, lead is the biggest thing that you’re looking at,” he said.
In the results of the CCR, 90% of samples tested resulted in lead level readings of less than 1.01 parts per billion. The “Action Level” for lead, or the level of lead content a sample would have to reach to be considered harmful, is 15 parts per billion. In the individual tests, lead was below detectable limits.
The city is also preparing to perform a lead service line inventory, to identify lead pipes that need to be removed and replaced, as mentioned in several city meetings.
Moser said citizens who have concerns have some steps they can take, though the Dent County Health Center generally does not provide testing to private individuals except for coliform and e-coli in private wells.
“If [your water] is consistently dirty, I’d first talk to the city, and then if they want to test it, there are private labs. I don’t necessarily have a specific lab or anything like that that I would recommend. And, if you can afford a filter, get a filter. I know not everybody is going to be able to afford that, but that’s an option as well,” said Moser. “Like I mentioned, we can test private wells for total coliform and e-coli. That’s the most common thing that’s going to hurt people, is bacteria basically. If you need metals tested for your well, then you’ve got to do that on your own. That’s pretty much all we can do, and that’s just because of the state’s rules, it’s not that we don’t think it’s important or anything like that, it’s just the State Public Health Lab’s rules.”
