Review of the 2016 Water Quality Report

The City of Ferndale recently published the annual water quality report (PDF) detailing results of tap water sample analyses. For some substances results are from samples over the past year and while others are based on a single annual sample.

According to the city website,

All water purveyors are required to publish an annual Consumer Confidence Report which outlines important information about the drinking water they provide to their customers.

Contained in the recently released 2016 report is a table detailing the presence of various substances in the samples. Included in that data is the following:

Substance	Amount/Range Detected	Maximum Level
Arsenic	0.002 ppm	0.01 ppm
Barium	0.041 ppm	2 ppm
Chlorine	0.5 to 0.9 ppm (avg 0.7)	4 ppm
Copper	0.035 ppm	1.3 ppm
Lead	0 to 0.003 ppm	0.015 ppm
Total Coliform	1 positive sample (of 176 taken)	1 positive sample
Nitrate	0 positive of 1 sample	10 ppm
Haloacetic Acids	2.4 to 5.6 ppb (avg 3.5)	60 ppb
Total Trihalomethanes	9.2 to 39.6 ppb (avg 19.2)	80 ppb

 

Comparing the 2016 data with 2014 and 2015 data,

Substance	2014 Amt/Range Detected	2015 Amt/Range Detected	2016 Amt/Range Detected
Arsenic	not reported	0.002 ppm	0.002 ppm
Barium	not reported	0.039 ppm	0.041 ppm
Chlorine	0.4 to 1.0 ppm	0.6 to 0.8 ppm	0.5 to 0.9 ppm
Copper	0 to 0.194 ppm	0 to 0.134 ppm	0 to 0.134 ppm
Lead	0 to 0.016 ppm	0 to 0.003 ppm	0 to 0.003 ppm
Total Coliform	0 positive samples of 132	0 positive samples of 132	1 positive sample of 176
Nitrate	0 positive of 1 sample	0 positive of 1 sample	0 positive of 1 sample
Haloacetic Acids	4.9 to 12.1 ppb	2.1 to 7.9 ppb	2.4 to 5.6 ppb
Total Trihalomethanes	39.5 to 77.0 ppb	11.3 to 44.8 ppb	9.2 to 39.6 ppb