2017  Annual Drinking Water Quality Report
Fork  Township Sanitary District
ID#  04-96-060
03-01-2018

We are pleased to present to you this year’s Water Quality Report.  This report is designed to inform you about the water quality and services we deliver to you every day.  Our constant goal is to provide you with safe and dependable supply of drinking water.  We want you to understand the efforts we make to continually improve the water treatment process and protect our water resources.  We are committed to ensuring the quality of your drinking water.  The water you drink comes from groundwater wells.  Six of the wells draw from the Upper Cape Fear Aquifer at the Lenoir/Wayne county line and twenty wells draw from rock formations in western WayneCounty.  We also have emergency water connections with the City of Goldsboro, Wayne Sanitary District and JohnstonCounty.

We are pleased to report that our drinking water is safe and meets federal and state requirements.  This report shows our water quality and what it means.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Tony McCabe at 919-736-2551.  We want our valued customers to be informed about their water utility.  If you want to learn more, please attend any of our regularly scheduled meetings.  They are held on the 3rd Wednesday night of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Fork Township Office.

Fork Township Sanitary District routinely monitors for contaminants in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws.  This Table shows the results of our monitoring for the period of January 1 to December 31, 2017 and the last test results of contaminants that were not due to be tested in 2017.  As water travels over land and underground it can pick up substances or contaminants such as microbes, inorganic and organic chemicals, and radioactive substances.  All drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants.  It’s important to remember that the presence of these contaminants does not necessarily pose a health risk.  EPA and the State requires us to monitor for certain contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants are not expected to vary significantly from year to year.  Some of the data, though representative of the water quality, is more than one year old.

In this table you will find many terms and abbreviations you might not be familiar with.  To help you better understand these terms we’ve provided the following definitions:

• Non-Detects (ND)-  laboratory analysis indicates that the constituent is not present.
• Parts per million(ppm) or Milligrams per liter(mg/l) – one part per million corresponds to one minute in two years or a single penny in $10,000.
• Action Level-  The concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which the water system must follow.
• Treatment technique(TT)-  process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.
• Maximum Contaminant Level(MCL)-  the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water.  MCL,s are set as close to the MCLG,s as feasible using the best available treatment.
• Maximum Contaminant Level Goal(MCLG)- level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health.  MCLG’s allow for a margin of safety.

MCL’s are set at very stringent levels.  To understand the possible health effects  described for many regulated constituents, a person would have to drink 2 liters of water every day at the MCL level for a lifetime to have a one-in-a-million chance of having the described health effect.

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR), Public Water Supply(PWS) Section, Source Water Assessment Program(SWAP) conducted assessments for all drinking water sources.  The purpose was to determine the susceptibility of each drinking water source to Potential Contaminant Sources(PCSs).   The relative susceptibility rating of each source for ForkTownship was determined by combining the contaminant rating( number and location of PCSs within the assessment area) and the inherant vulnerability rating.

The assessment ratings are summarized in the table below:

The complete SWAP report for ForkTownship may be viewed on the Web at:   www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/pws/swap   Note that because SWAP results and reports are periodically updated by the PWS section, the results available on this site may differ from the results that were available at the time this CCR was prepared.  To obtain a printed copy of this report, please mail a written request to:  Source Water Assessment Program-Report Request, 1634 MailServiceCenter, RaleighN.C.27699-1634, or email request to swap@ncmail.net.  Please indicate your system name and provide your name, address and phone number.  It is important to understand that a susceptibility rating of  “higher” does not imply poor water quality, only the systems potential to become contaminated by PCS’s in the assessment area.

TEST RESULTS:

Microbiological Contaminants

Lead and Copper

RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINANTS  JULY 2012
Gross Alpha , MCL 15, No Violation
Gross Beta ,   MCL 50, No Violation

INORGANIC CONTAMINANTS   NOVEMBER 2017
Fluoride-No violations-test result  .80 ppm MCL=4.0 ppm
Source of contamination:  Erosion of natural deposits; water additive which promotes strong teeth; discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories.
Iron-No violations-test results= no detection MCL=.3 ppm
Manganese-No violations-test results= .015 ppm  MCL=.05 ppm

VOLATILE ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS  JULY 2017 – no detections

DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCT ANALYSIS-AUGUST 2017

Total THM-test result=.0174 ppm MCL=.080 ppm
Total HAA5-test result= .003 ppm MCL=.060 ppm
Source of Contamination:  by-product of drinking water chlorination

PESTICIDES AND SYNTHETIC ORGANIC CHEMICALS  JULY 2017 – no detections

NITRATE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS  OCTOBER 2017 – no detections

The table shows that our system had no violations.  We’re proud that your drinking water meets or exceeds all Federal and State requirements.  We have learned through our monitoring and testing that some constituents have been detected.  The EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE at these levels.

All sources of drinking water are subject to potential contamination by substances that are naturally occurring or man made.  These substances can be microbes, inorganic or organic chemicals and radioactive substances.  All drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants.  The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that it poses a health risk.  More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

While your drinking water meets EPA’s standard for arsenic, it does contain low levels of arsenic.  EPA’s standard balances the current understanding of arsenic’s possible health effects against the costs of removing arsenic from drinking water.  EPA continues to research the health effects of low levels of arsenic, which is a mineral known to cause cancer in humans at high concentrations and is linked to other health effects such as skin damage and circulatory problems.

In our continuing efforts to maintain a safe and dependable water supply it may be necessary to make improvements in your water system.  The costs of these improvements may be reflected in the rate structure.  Rate adjustments may be necessary in order to address these improvements.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population.  Immuno-compromised persons such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections.  These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.  EPA/CDC guidelines an appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by cryptosporidium and other microbiological contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791).

We at Fork Township Sanitary District work around the clock to provide quality water to every tap.  We ask that all our customers help us protect our water resources, which are the heart of our community, our way of life, and our children’s future.

__Tony McCabe_____________________

District Manager