Index of Contents:
- Introduction
- Coliform Bacteria
- Pesticides
- Lead
- Iron and Manganese
- Cryptosporidium
- Drinking Water Quality Incidents
- Further Information
1. Introduction
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) checks on behalf of the Government that water companies supply water that is safe to drink. This leaflet summarises the results of our checks on Cholderton and District Water Company Limited during 2001. You should read it alongside DWI’s leaflet, How Good is the Drinking Water? which gives more details on the standards and tests. This is available free of charge and on the DWI web site at www.dwi.gov.uk..
Cholderton and District Water continues to supply you with drinking water of a high quality. In 2001, 99.61% of 512 tests met the drinking water standards.
This is below the overall figure for England and Wales of 99.86%. The tests are carried out on samples taken from water treatment works, service reservoirs and consumers’ taps.
Although the 2001 results are very good, there are some matters which may concern you. These are detailed below including any steps taken by Cholderton and District Water to further improve its performance.
2. Coliform bacteria
Occasionally, coliform bacteria may be found in drinking water samples; these are not considered harmful to consumers’ health. If coliform bacteria are detected, Cholderton and District Water investigates immediately.
During 2001, no coliform bacteria were detected in the water leaving the company’s water treatment works. Low numbers of coliform bacteria were detected in water leaving the company’s service reservoir on one occasion. The standard at service reservoirs permits 5% of samples to contain coliform bacteria and, in 2001, the Company’s service reservoir did not fail the standard.
None of the water samples taken from consumers’ taps contained coliform bacteria.
3. Pesticides
Cholderton and District Water carried out 68 tests for individual pesticides during 2001 and all samples met the stringent standard.
4. Lead
Samples do occasionally fail the standard for lead, even where additional treatment has been installed to reduce the amount of lead picked up by water from pipework.
If you are concerned about the possibility of lead in your drinking water, you should contact Cholderton and District Water to see whether there is a problem. A leaflet about lead in drinking water is available from DWI free of charge and can also be found on the DWI web site.
No samples taken by Cholderton and District Water failed the standard for lead during 2001.
5. Iron and manganese
These two parameters provide a good indication of the overall condition of the mains used to distribute drinking water throughout the area of supply.
During 2001, no samples failed the iron or manganese standards. This has been the case since 1990 when the current Regulations were implemented.
6. Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium is a tiny micro-organism that can sometimes cause a form of diarrhoea called cryptosporidiosis. There are a number of sources of Cryptosporidium other than drinking water, New regulations require water companies to sample continuously and analyse daily for Cryptosporidium in the treated water at potentially vulnerable sites.
It is a criminal offence to exceed the new treatment standard for Cryptosporidium.
The company’s two boreholes were not considered to be at significant risk.
7. Drinking Water Quality Incidents
Cholderton and District Water did not notify any events during 2001.
8. Further information
If you would like more information about drinking water quality the following leaflets are available free of charge from DWI and can also be found on the DWI web site:
What do we do?
How good is the drinking water?
Problems with your drinking water
Chlorine, smell and taste
Discoloured water
Lead in drinking water
Private water supplies
Water hardness
Tap water, where does it come from and how is it made safe to drink?
Using lead-free solder for drinking water fittings
DWI reports on each water company
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Drinking Water Inspectorate,
Floor 2/A1, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE
Telephone : 020 7944 5956 - Facsimile : 020 7944 5969
E-mail: dwi.enquiries@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Published 10 July 2002
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