Why Are You Getting This Report?

To comply with New York State regulations, the Johnson City Water Department will be annually issuing a report describing the quality of your drinking water. The purpose of this report is to raise your understanding of drinking water and awareness of the need to protect our drinking water sources. This report provides an overview of last year’s water quality. Included are details about where your water comes from, what it contains, and how it compares to New York State standards. A detailed summary of any analytical results is available at the Johnson City Water Department located at 44 Camden Street, Johnson City, New York. A copy of this report is available at Johnson City Municipal Services, 243 Main Street, Johnson City, New York. Additional information may also be obtained by calling the Johnson City Water department at 607-797-2523. In an effort to keep our customers informed, we will be trying to provide tools such as newsletters, annual reports and our new website that is currently under construction. We anticipate that this website will provide more user friendly and up-to-date information for our customers.

Who Are We?

The Johnson City Water Department employees are dedicated to providing you, our customers, with safe, quality water. There are a total of 11 employees, counting the Director of Services. Allow us to introduce ourselves:

Bob Bennett P.E., Director of Services

Brian Barker, Assistant Superintendent Eric Korutz, Tech II

Mary Beth DePugh, Office Manager Myron Krajnyk, Tech II

Bill Linsky, Foreman Fred Kocan Tech II

Tom Brown, Tech III Michael Slater, Tech I

Ted Connolly, Tech III Pat Scott, Tech I

Together we have over 140 years of experience in the water utility business. We want you to know that we are doing our best to provide you with safe drinking water, as well as fire protection and water for sanitary purposes. Our jobs include:

v Keeping your water safe from contaminants.

v Operating and maintaining pumps and motors to distribute the water into the system.

v Replacing, repairing and maintaining water mains to upkeep the distribution system.

v Installation, repair and reading water meters.

v 24 hour a day on-call service for emergencies.

v Advising and assisting engineers and contractors on new construction projects.

v Customer service during business hours.

We would also like to tell our customers that all Johnson City Water Department employees are issued picture identification badges. We urge our customers to ask our employees to show these badges before entering your property for your protection.

Where Does Your Water Come from?

In general, the sources of drinking water, both tap and bottled water, include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. Johnson City’s water is produced from an abundant underground aquifer using five wells located throughout the Village. These wells are located on North Broad Street, Olive Street, and at our main plant on Camden Street in Westover. The total pumping capacity of these wells is 12,000,000 gallons per day. In addition, the Village has four reservoir tanks with a holding capacity of 5,000,000 gallons and additional booster stations are used to serve three different elevation zones. The water produced by these wells supply all of the Village of Johnson City, Airport Road in the Town of Maine, Westover and Fairmont Park in the Town of Union, and parts of the Town of Dickinson and the Village of Endicott. There are approximately 5,800 homes and businesses connected to 70 miles of water main, bringing safe drinking water to 16,890 people. We also provide water to 525 fire hydrants to help protect you and your home should the need arise.

What Are Some Potential Problems?

As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and in some cases, radioactive material and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or human activities. It should be noted that drinking water, including bottled water, may be reasonably expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk. A major disadvantage with groundwater supply is that that the water may be excessively hard and contain minerals such as iron and manganese due to the leaching of minerals from the soil. On a positive note, groundwater is less susceptible to microbial contamination such as Cryptosporidium.

Is Your Water Safe?

The answer to this question is a resounding YES! In order to ensure your tap water is safe to drink, New York State and the EPA put regulations in place that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. As these regulations require, we routinely test your drinking water for numerous contaminants. During 2007, the Johnson City Water Department was required to take a minimum of 20 bacteriological samples from the water distribution system per month. As you can see by the Table of Detected Contaminants, we have learned through our testing that some contaminants have been detected. However, these contaminants were below New York State requirements and resulted in no violations. The Village of Johnson City wells are disinfected with either liquid or gas chlorination which is introduced at each well site. At our Camden Street treatment plant, Calciquest (a sequestering agent) is added to stabilize the water being pumped through air strippers. Air stripping is a process to remove any volatile contaminant that may be present in the raw water. In addition, the NYS Department of Health has completed a source water assessment for our system showing possible and actual threats to the safety of our drinking water. The ratings, as shown in the Susceptibility Table, determine how susceptible each of our wells is to certain contaminants and range from low to very high. This information is used to implement a plan for disinfection and treatment long before a problem arises.

What Does This Cost You?

Amount of Water Used Per Inside the Village Outside the Village

First 1,000 cubic feet $20.00 minimum $30.00 minimum

1,001-7,000 cu.ft. $.0168 per cu.ft. $.0227 per cu.ft.

7,001-2,000,000 cu.ft. $.0155 per cu.ft. $.0205 per cu.ft.

Over 2,000,000 cu.ft. $.0092 per cu.ft. $.0092 per cu.ft.

THIS EQUATES TO LESS THAN ONE CENT PER GALLON

How Can You Conserve Water?

Although our system has an adequate amount of water to meet present and future demands, there are a number of reasons why it is important to conserve water. They are:

v There is direct cost savings to you because you are using less water.

v Saving water keeps the price of water to you down by reducing the cost of energy required to pump water and the need to construct costly new wells, pumping systems and water towers.

v Saving water lessens the strain on the water systems during a dry spell or drought, helping to avoid severe water restrictions that are necessary to provide the minimal requirements for drinking water and fire protection.

You can play a role in conserving water by becoming conscious of the amount of water your household is using and looking for ways to use less whenever you can. It is not hard to conserve water. Here are some ideas:

Inside:

· Check every faucet in your home for leaks. Just a slow drip can waste 15 to 20 gallons a day. Fix it and you can save almost 6,000 gallons per year.

· Check your toilets for leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank. If the color shows up in the bowl after a few minutes, you have a leak. It is not uncommon to lose up to 100 gallons a day from one of these otherwise invisible toilet leaks. Fix it and you can save more than 30,000 gallons per year.

· Check your meter to detect hidden leaks. Simply turn off all taps and water using appliances. Check your meter after 15 minutes. If it moved, you have a leak.

· Replace old fixtures with water-saving devices in faucets, toilets and appliances.

· Wash only full loads of laundry.

· Run the dishwasher only when full and soak dishes before washing. Automatic dishwashers use 15 gallons of water for every cycle regardless of how many dishes are loaded.

· Take shorter showers.

· Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or shaving.

Outside:

· Repair hose and faucet leaks.

· Use water saving nozzles.

· Water the lawn and garden in the early morning or evening.

· Use mulch around plants and shrubs.

· Use water from a bucket to wash your car, and save the hose for rinsing.

Information about other water conservation ideas can be found at www.epa.gov/safewater/publicoutreach/index.html

What Improvements Are We Making?

v We are in the process of upgrading our water plant. We plan to install new VFD’s (variable frequency drives-a system for controlling the speed of an electrical motor) for our pump motors. This will replace antiquated models and be more energy efficient.

v New SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition-a system that collects data from various sensors at water plant or in other remote locations and then sends this data to a central computer which then manages and controls the data) system. This will allow us to control our pumps and equipment more efficiently.

v We are in the process of installing new lighting for energy efficiency.

v Replacing outdated doors and windows for security and energy efficiency.

v Installing a new security system. This will include security cameras, intrusion alarms and smoke detectors. This will help us protect our community water supply.

v We have just purchased new leak detection equipment so we can start a new leak detection survey program. The new equipment will allow us to find hidden leaks in our distribution system so we can repair them, thus saving water and energy.

v We have upgraded our hydrant program. We will be replacing old hydrants throughout the village and installing new hydrants that will be more dependable and easier to operate for fire protection.

v The computers at the Water Dept have recently been updated.

v We recently purchased a new valve truck. This truck will be equipped with a valve operating machine as well as a vac system and power sprayer. This truck will be an asset to the department to continue a valve program to operate, check, and maintain the valves in our system. It will also aid in emergencies such as main breaks for faster shutdowns.

v We will also be upgrading our meter reading system. This will allow us to read meters faster and more efficiently.

How Can You Contact Us?

Here is a handy clip and save guide to

phone numbers you may need for issues

related to your water service:

Thank you for allowing us to continue

to provide your family with quality

drinking water this year. We ask

that all of our customers help us

protect our water sources, which

are the heart of the community.

TABLE OF DETECTED CONTAMINANTS
Contaminant	Violation Yes/No	Sample Location	Date of Sample	Level Detected (range)	Unit Measure-ment	MCLG	MCL	Likely Source of Contamination
Microbiological Contaminants
Total Coliform Bacteria^1	No	Distribution	08/08/07	Positive	N/A	0	Any positive sample	Naturally present in the environment.
Inorganic Contaminants
Barium	No	Well #2 Well #3 Well #6	2/23/06 5/17/06 2/23/06	0.068 0.11 0.10 0.11	mg/l	2	2	Discharge of drilling wastes; discharge from metal refineries; erosion of natural deposits.
Lead^2	No	Distribution	09/05/07	2.6 (ND-74.2)	ug/l	0	AL=15	Corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits.
Copper^2	No	Distribution	09/05/07	0.391 (0.0186-0.757)	mg/l	1.3	AL=1.3	Corrosion of household plumbing systems; erosion of natural deposits; leaching from wood preservatives.
Manganese	No	Well #6	02/23/06	0.053	mg/l	N/A	0.3	Naturally occurring; Indicative of landfill contamination.
Nitrate (as Nitrogen)	No	Well #2 Well #6	2/7/2007	1.19 1.78	mg/l	10	10	Runoff from fertilizer use; leaching from septic tanks, sewage; erosion of natural deposits.
Sulfate	No	Well #2 Well #3 Well #6	2/23/06 5/17/06 5/23/06	46 48 66	mg/l	N/A	250	Naturally occurring.
Sodium^3	No	Distribution	11/21/07	75.5	mg/l	N/A	See Health Effects	Naturally occurring; Road salt; Water softeners; Animal waste.
Volatile Organic Contaminants
Tetrachloroethene	No	Well #6	2/7/07 5/11/07 8/22/07 10/15/07	0.58 0.89 0.75 0.97	ug/l	N/A	5.0	Discharge from factories and dry cleaners; Wastes sites; Spills.
Disinfection Byproducts
Total Trihalomethanes^4	No	Distribution	08/22/07	19	ug/l