What are you drinking?

By Dan KingWhitehall water

If you live in the Village of Whitehall, your drinking water is perfectly healthy.

That’s what the state Dept. of Health’s 2013 Drinking Water Quality Report shows.

“Our water quality is above good, it’s excellent,” said Don Williams, public works supervisor.

The village’s water supply was found in compliance with allowable levels of all 12 contaminants that the health department addressed in its report, which was released last week.

“I’m proud of our water, especially when we get the report from the Department of Health telling us we’ve got good drinking water,” Williams said.

Additionally, the department found that the village’s drinking water supply “does not have an elevated susceptibility to contamination” – meaning the potential for contamination of the water supply is low.

Five years earlier, the annual report indicated that the level of disinfectant products in the village’s water supply was slightly higher than the health department’s acceptable level, and this report indicates that issue has been eradicated, mainly due to the 2008 installation of a new water system, which uses a different chlorination process.

Since the new plant was put in in April of 2008, the village’s water supply has been very good, officials said.

“We don’t have to do pre-chlorination anymore because the water we get from Long Lake is so pristine,” Williams said.

The issue that was caused by pre-chlorination was the formation of Trihalomethanes (THMs), which occur when chlorine comes into contact with biological contaminants.

“THMs are created when you use chlorine against biological contaminants, now that we only do post-chlorination, we don’t create nearly any THMs now,” Mayor Peter Telisky said. “We have really clear and clean water.”

The full Drinking Water Quality Report can be found in this week’s Weekender.