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Summary Report for 2001 on
South Staffordshire Water plc

Index of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Coliform Bacteria
  3. Pesticides
  4. Lead
  5. Iron and Manganese
  6. Cryptosporidium
  7. Drinking Water Quality Incidents
  8. 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 South Staffordshire Water Plc 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..

South Staffordshire Water continues to supply you with drinking water of a high quality. In 2001, 99.91% of more than 37,300 tests met the drinking water standards. This is above 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.

None of the failures of the standards in 2001 were considered harmful to consumers’ health. Each failure was assessed and, where necessary, South Staffordshire Water has taken action to prevent further failures.

Although the 2001 results are good, there are some matters which may concern you. These are detailed below including any steps taken by South Staffordshire 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, South Staffordshire Water investigates immediately.

During 2001, low numbers of coliform bacteria were detected in the water leaving a small number of water treatment works and service reservoirs. The standard at service reservoirs permits 5% of samples to contain coliform bacteria and, in 2001, none of the Company’s service reservoirs failed the standard.

During 2001, the Inspectorate was concerned about failures at one treatment works but the Company took remedial action at this works to prevent the failure from recurring.

Coliform bacteria were detected in 0.3% of the water samples taken from consumers’ taps. Many of these failures may have been due to the condition of the tap and not the water itself. The standard permits 5% of samples in a water supply zone to contain coliform bacteria and all zones met the standard.

3. Pesticides

South Staffordshire Water carried out more than 1,200 tests for individual pesticides during 2001 and all samples met the stringent standard. This reflects the significant investment in recent years to remove pesticides from drinking water.

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 South Staffordshire 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 South Staffordshire 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, four of 895 samples taken for iron failed the standard. Only one of 833 samples taken for manganese failed the standard. Currently, there is no need for the Company to undertake major refurbishment of its distribution system.

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.

During 2001, South Staffordshire Water fulfilled its requirement to carry out continuous sampling and monitoring at one of its sites that was identified as being at significant risk from Cryptosporidium. The Company is required to tell DWI of any failures to meet the treatment standard. South Staffordshire Water reported no failures during 2001.

In addition, as part of the new regulations, the Company is committed to programmes of work to reduce any potential risk from Cryptosporidium at five sites. One of these programmes was completed during 2001.

7. Drinking Water Quality Incidents

DWI regarded two of the events notified during 2001 by South Staffordshire Water as incidents. The details are shown in the table below.

Each of the incidents assessed by DWI were of short duration and the Company took remedial action. Five recommendations were made as a result of these incidents mainly regarding operations.

Also in 2001, DWI assessed two incidents that occurred in 2000.

Summary of water quality incidents reported in 2001


Type of incident


No.of incidents


Assessment completed


Areas affected

Supply of discoloured water

1

Yes

Maple brook (February)

Vandalism

1

Yes

Shavers End (September)

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:

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Drinking Water Inspectorate,
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Telephone : 020 7944 5956 - Facsimile : 020 7944 5969
E-mail: dwi.enquiries@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Published 10 July 2002
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