Confusion in comparing Water reports

I just found my water report online and comparatively speaking, it seems rather incomplete.

Link in case anyone wants to see specifically what I mean:

http://www.aacounty.org/DPW/Resources/WaterQuality2009.pdf

No, Calcium, no Magnesium, not Chloride, no PH (I have a meter anyways though)...no hardness measurements

I mean, there are about 10 things on the report.

The notes state that 120 other parameters were tested however do not appear because they were not detected.

WTF?

Is there a more detailed report I need to call and ask for? The note seems to indicate that it would be a waste of time.

I keep clicking on others' water reports here and I am not finding similar numbers.

Any help/comments will be greatly appreciated, I'll keep searching in the mean time....

Hate to answer my own question, but I just got off the phone with the water service rep and the answer is that those results are apparently not required...

I requested Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, Chloride, Total Alkalinity, Carbonate and Bicarbonate...hopefully I covered most of what I need.

Said they did not have all of those, but would email me everything they did have on that list by next week.

The report you were looking at is the report that is compiled to comply with the Clean Water Act. What you wanted is the tap water analysis. Here is a link to those reports from your water authority: http://www.wsscwater.com/home/jsp/misc/genericTapWaterAnalysisReports.faces

BigB said:

The report you were looking at is the report that is compiled to comply with the Clean Water Act. What you wanted is the tap water analysis. Here is a link to those reports from your water authority: http://www.wsscwater.com/home/jsp/misc/genericTapWaterAnalysisReports.faces

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First of all, I really appreciate you pointing out the difference in reports, but I can't quite connect the dots directly to my county thru the Potomac, I've been reading and I cant quite see a confirmation.

Laurel is a pretty big city and crosses three or more counties, I don't see anne arundel there, and when I go to anne arundels report, It makes it seem like there are several water treament plants they use...

But maybe I'm missing something, I will keep searching, thanks for putting me on the right track!!!

Also, if you have a moment, I don't understand why there are two reports in there, I have looked back and forth and see no labels detailing the difference in the 2009 report.

The only thing that make sense given the numbers is that it is a water in, water out report, would I be correct in that assumption?

I will keep looking

There are 2 reports in the WSSC report because they supply customers from 2 plants. One draws from the Potomac and the other from the Pax river. Fairfax residents can get water from either the Potomac (Corbalis) plant or Bull Run depending on where they live. And it is apaprently the same for you in Anne Arundel. To really get a handle on this you need to call the supplier and ask him which plant services your area then get a report for that plant.

Or send a sample off to Ward Labs to see what is coming out of your tap now as opposed to making decisions based on annual averages as reported in typical municipal report.

Waters around the DC metro area do differ but not that dramatically.

I didn't realize that Laurel was serviced by multiple water authorities (that is rather unusual). So if that particular water authority doesn't service you, then yes, those reports would be inapplicable.

See this is what I found that was confusing from anne arundel - Maybe I will go the ward labs route


http://www.aacounty.org/DPW/Utilities/waterDistribution.cfm

Water Distribution System

The water supply system consists of 8 independent wells and 13 major water treatment plants which provide clean safe drinking water to 92,000 customers. The water treatment plants derive their supply from 57 production wells. The basic system is supplemented in the northern portion of the county by three connections to the City of Baltimore, from whom the County purchases water.

The water system capacity of 37.5-million gallons per day (MGD) is adequate to meet the average daily demand.

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