Water Quality

Departments

Annual Water Quality

The Consumer Confidence Report is designed to inform you, the customer, about the water that is being supplied through the water utility. Copies of the report are not mailed out to all customers. Consumer Confidence Reports are available by request at Town Hall or at the links provided below. 

 

2023 Water Testing

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires continuous monitoring and testing of the drinking water quality that we provide to our customers.  This year we had a number of contaminates to test for including Radium, Lead, Copper, and PHAS and I am pleased to report that we are in compliance with all of the test results.  As in the past, we are on a reduced monitoring schedule and hope to continue on a reduced monitoring schedule in the future.  We took our first PHAS testing this year and due to extremely low results and no detects the DNR waived the remaining tests for this year, we also will be placed on a reduced monitoring schedule for future PHAS testing.         2023 test results

 

Water Chemistry & Water Heaters

To answer some questions and comments we often hear, we thought an article on water and water heaters might be helpful.

People comment that the water is bad because of the particles on the bottom of ice cube trays or in coffee pots. We can’t fight the fact that there is an enormous amount of calcium in the water. That is because we have shallow wells in the limestone aquifer. We do filter the water to remove the iron but we can’t remove the calcium. That means our water is hard as a brick and needs softening.

We also hear that “my water heater only lasted, insert any amount of time, because the water around here ate it up.” Water heaters have steel tanks that are lined with a thin glass coating to prevent corrosion, but the glass coating doesn’t cover the steel inlet and outlet pipes. When installing a new water heater, it is imperative that di-electric connectors are used between the heater and the copper water pipes. These connectors separate the dissimilar metals that can cause corrosion thru electrolysis.

Because we know that there will be some sort of corrosion in the tank, water heaters all have “anodes” in them. Anodes, usually made of magnesium, are the sacrificial part of the water heater. Since the anode is consumed easier than the steel tank, they corrode first. If there is too much corrosion or too much time, the anode may go away, and then the tank is next in the corrosion food chain.

When salt is added, as in softened water, the anodes corrode more quickly. One more interesting thing, when we heat water as in steam cleaning, the water gets more aggressive. Bear in mind this corrosion should take years to happen.

So calcium is not bad, but it makes water hard. If the water heater is installed properly, you and your heater should have a long and happy relationship.

Water is our greatest resource, embrace it.