State helps cities assess water quality.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Many people who get their water from community systems also want to understand and protect the quality of the water they drink.

Two state agencies have teamed up to help cities and other operators of nearly 2,300 such systems in Oregon identify the source and quality of their water, potential risks to that quality and their susceptibility to those risks.

"We have identified over 1,000 human-caused contamination threats," said Dennis Nelson, director of the state Department of Human Services' Drinking Water Program office in Springfield. "They range from agricultural and logging operations to chemical spills to homeowners' overuse of lawn pesticides."

Most community water systems in Oregon obtain their drinking water from groundwater - wells or streams. But the bulk of the state's population drinks water from urban providers such as the Eugene Water & Electric Board, which use surface water such as the McKenzie River.

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requests new "water system assessments" for each community supplier at least every five years. System operators can then use the reports to reduce risks through local drinking water protection programs.

EWEB, for instance, developed an emergency spill response plan and pesticide monitoring all up and down the McKenzie River, Nelson said.

And the Springfield Utility Board conducted a campaign to eliminate "legacy pesticides" from agricultural operations in its drinking system watershed, said Jacqueline Fern of the Department of Environmental Quality office in Eugene.

More than 125 farmers and other residents participated in the voluntary program, she said. Collectively, they turned in 135,000 pounds of outdated or outlawed chemicals and pesticides.

The two agencies will provide technical assistance to help even the smallest community water system create a protection plan. Not all take advantage of the help, but many do.

Tom Pattee, a geologist with the local drinking water program, is working with Coburg to update that community's plan.

"They're doing a new inventory of contaminant sources because they're concerned about stormwater carrying an emergency spill into a grassy swale near one of their wells," Pattee said.

Every community water system is requested to make available to the public a copy of its source water assessment report and any water source protection plan, Nelson said.

"Well more than 90 percent of Oregonians have routinely safe drinking water," he said. "The question is: Is it protected so it stays that way in the future?"

- Karen McCowan