What’s with the water in this town?

    It seems to be the fashionable debate these days to wonder at the quality of Milledgeville’s water. Bottled water is becoming a staple in the homes of GCSU students, and tap water is beginning to get a bad name.
    Stories about friends of friends claiming to have suffered kidney stones and other similar ailments seem to be common among students. The typical suspect is usually Milledgeville’s tap water, so I set out to see what’s up with the water in this town.
    My investigation started at the courthouse downtown where the City of Milledgeville’s water and sewage office is housed. I was given a copy of the annual water quality report that was sent to local water customers by the City of Milledgeville in the spring of 2007.
    The report informed customers that proper records were not kept following the monitoring requirements for residual disinfectant and turbidity.
    The report included information on how to understand the details of what went wrong with record-keeping standards from January 2003 to August 2006. According to the report, residual disinfectant is an amount of a specific disinfectant that is added to the water to control microbiological containment’s. Turbidity is simply the “measure of the cloudiness of the water.” If water has high turbidity it is very likely that it has high levels of disinfectant and possibly high levels of calcium, magnesium, or other minerals.
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that “there is no such thing as naturally pure water.” Contaminant’s that are often found in water before it is treated to become safe for humans include microbiological things like viruses and bacteria, inorganic materials such as salts and metals, naturally occurring or human-caused radioactive material, and organic chemical contaminations consistent with those found at gas stations. Minerals are considered Contaminant’s too, but are often desirable in small amounts due to how they may enhance the flavor or other properties of water. Some Contaminant’s, such as minerals, become a problem, only when they are present at high levels. Contaminant’s like viruses and radioactive material, however, are obviously problematic when present at all.
    The annual water quality report put out by the City of Milledgeville outlines the results of all tests recently conducted for the quality of the tap water. It boldly states that there was no evidence of even an acute violation of standards implemented by the EPA.
      “We are proud that your drinking water meets or exceeds all State and Federal requirements. EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE,” states the report.
    Those test results are reportedly from 2006, so I decided to conduct a test of my own using HACH water quality field-testing kit commonly used by environmental science students and scientists. I tested for copper, phosphate, phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, free chlorine, total chlorine and pH. Some of these Contaminant’s, if present, could point to larger, more complex problems that could suggest explanations for people getting sick from drinking the tap water in Milledgeville. For example, if the pH is high, meaning it is extremely basic, it could suggest that the water has a high level of ammonia, which is poisonous.
      Samples of water to be tested were taken from a water fountain in the Arts & Science building, the fountain in the center of campus, Adams residence hall, the kitchen faucet of my own apartment off campus, and just for curiosity’s sake, the PUR filter water dispenser in my refrigerator. All the samples taken, including the one from the campus fountain, were found to be well below the minimum EPA standard, meaning all the water test samples are considered absolutely safe to drink.
    The PUR filter water dispenser that I recently bought and keep in my refrigerator did remove trace amounts of copper, free chlorine and total chlorine. Copper is a naturally occurring metal deposit, and can be found in drinking water in trace amounts due to household plumbing pipes. Free chlorine and total chlorine are commonly used as disinfectant added to water to treat it for microbiological Contaminant’s. It is good to know that the filter is useful for something other than storing cold water, although those Contaminant’s in trace amounts are still considered safe to drink.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 1 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry