Green Valley Ground Water

In the April 20, 2001 editorial page of the Green Valley News a reader had made certain comments regarding local water quality.  The following is a copy of our response prepared by Michael D. Weber, P.E. President & General Manager Community Water Company of Green Valley, to these comments:

Editor:

I read the April 20, 2001 editorial entitled "Green Valley Groundwater Should Be Checked Out" with no small amount of interest. While I applaud the author's interest and concern regarding local water quality and personally feel more people should care about such matters, I would like to provide these thoughts from a water provider's perspective to correct the false and somewhat alarming statements that were made.

REGULATORS

In Arizona, water quality compliance is regulated and enforced by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. This agency serves to ensure that federal requirements (i.e., those from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Safe Drinking Water Act, etc.) are met by all water providers, both municipally operated and privately owned. In addition many Arizona counties, such as our own Pima County, have been given primacy for monitoring, inspection, and enforcement of certain aspects of water quality and system operation.

TESTING REQUIREMENTS

Water providers are required to test for literally hundreds of contaminants in the water they supply to their customers and are further required to report the findings to the proper state or county authority. This testing must be performed by a state certified and regulated laboratory using preapproved testing methods. Public notification requirements ensure that customers are made aware of any potentially harmful exceedence. Furthermore, contrary to what was indicated in the editorial, a water provider is required under penalty of law to report the findings of all of its testing to its customers on an annual basis. This data is in fact public information and has been available even in the years preceding the customer reporting requirements. Reporting water quality results to customers is accomplished through what is called a Consumer Confidence Reports, which is mailed to each and every customer annually. These reports clearly indicate what contaminants were tested for, whether they were detected, the concentration if detected, as well as the maximum allowable contaminant level.

RECENT FINDINGS

Speaking solely for the Community Water Company of Green Valley, the company that provides groundwater to the majority of the community's population, I can specifically address one concern noted in the editorial and perhaps alleviate some concern. In the most recent sampling for Cyanide, this contaminant was not detected at all in any of our four production wells. In fact, the water we provide to our customers is in complete and total compliance with all water quality regulations and requirements.

As I write these comments, our Consumer Confidence Reports are being printed in preparation for the annual mass mailing to each customer we serve. If you are our customer, please take time to read this important information and do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Department at (520) 625-8409 if you have any questions.