Meridian’s tap water receives best score in new report
Published 5:15 pm Thursday, January 23, 2020
- Bill Graham / The Meridian Star Meridian Public Works Director Hugh Smith discusses some of the technology used in the water treatment process.
Meridian’s drinking water received the best test result in a national report released this week by an environmental nonprofit organization.
Out of 44 areas in the country tested for toxic chemicals known as PFAS, Meridian was the only location where they were not detectable, according to The Environmental Working Group.
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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that don’t break down and can lead to health problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Between May and December 2019, EWG staff and local volunteers collected samples that were analyzed by an independent laboratory for 30 different chemicals, the report said.
“In the 43 samples where PFAS was detected, the total level varied from less than 1 part per trillion, or ppt, in Seattle and Tuscaloosa, Ala., to almost 186 ppt in Brunswick County, N.C,” the report said.
A sample from Jackson showed a PFAS level of 3.8 ppt, according to the report.
“Based on our tests and new academic research that found PFAS widespread in rainwater, EWG scientists now believe PFAS is likely detectable in all major water supplies in the U.S., almost certainly in all that use surface water,” the report said.
Two locations – Brunswick County, N.C. and Quad Cities, Iowa – had PFAS levels beyond the EPA limit, according to the report.
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Hugh Smith, Meridian’s director of public works, said the city’s sample likely did not show PFAS because Meridian uses only groundwater.
“Meridian is very fortunate,” he said. “That really eliminates us from a lot of conversations, such as this PFAS conversation, because we’re not pulling water that is exposed to some of the avenues that PFAS uses to get in to the drinking water source.”
Meridian’s water supply is several hundred feet underground in the Lower Wilcox Aquifer.
Surface water is much more dependent upon environmental conditions than groundwater, Smith said.
Before water flows out of your faucet, it is pulled from ground wells, aerated, treated with chemicals, filtered for unwanted particles, retreated with chemcials to disinfect and enhance water quality, then stored and pumped out to distribution centers, according to Smith.
“When you think about how many people that actually turn on that tap on a day to day basis with zero incident, for years, that is a testament to the type of, the background activities that take place in order for that to happen,” he said.