Important Information About Your Drinking Water
Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) MCL Violation at Ruidoso Water System
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Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct this situation.
We routinely monitor for the presence of drinking water contaminants. Testing results show that our system exceeds the standard or maximum contaminant level (MCL) for Total Trihalomethanes. The standard for Total Trihalomethanes is 0.080 mg/L. The average level of Total Trihalomethanes over the last quarter is shown in the table below:
What should I do?
There is nothing you need to do. You do not need to boil your water or take corrective actions. If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours.
If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about drinking this water.
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been an emergency, you would have been notified within 24 hours. TTHM are four volatile organic chemicals which form when disinfectants react with natural organic matter in the water.
What is being done?
The business containing the TTHM sample location at 657 Sudderth Drive was closed in April 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. During the sampling of this location, the business was not flushed long enough to eliminate TTHM that had accumulated at business while not in operation.
The Village resampled the site and two additional sites (upstream and downstream) after receiving the high TTHM reading. All three sites came back below the MCL. Village staff feel this issue was restricted to the business because of lack of water use in the facility while being closed. The Village released an EPA guideline document for businesses reopening encouraging best management practices to maintain and restore water quality in closed facilities on Facebook and the Village website. Furthermore, the sampling location was moved to a location closer to the service connection to reduce the chance of future violations due to business closure.
The Village feels this problem has been resolved. However, an additional violation will occur next quarter because the metric used to assess TTHM is the locational running annual average (LRAA). The LRAA is the average of analytical results for samples taken at a monitoring location during the previous four calendar quarters. With the second quarter sample of 2020 for TTHM far exceeding the limit, it will take four quarters to eliminate the high sample from causing the LRAA to exceed the MCL.
For more information, please contact:
Lynn Crawford at 575-258-4343
Ruidoso Water System, NM3513114
313 Cree Meadows Rd
Ruidoso, NM 88345
*Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail. *
*People who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidneys, or central nervous systems, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer*
