IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
City of Las Vegas Failed to Meet Treatment Requirements
Este informe contiene información importante acerca de su agua potable. Haga que alguien lo traduzca para usted, o hable con alguien que lo entienda.
Our water system recently violated drinking water requirements during the January 2023 and February 2023 reporting periods. Although this was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we did (are doing) to correct this situation.
We routinely monitor your water for turbidity (cloudiness). This tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. Water samples for January 2023 showed that turbidity measurements were over 1 turbidity unit (NTU) for a short duration on the 13th of January. Turbidity also exceeded 1 NTU on the 16th of February 2023. This is a violation of the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The standard is that no sample may exceed 1 NTU at any time during the month. Turbidity exceeded 0.3 NTUs in more than 5% of the 4-hour recording periods during the month of February 2023. Pathogen inactivation was not met on the days of high turbidity within the treatment plant due to incoming flows stopping which results in the disinfection automatically ceasing to avoid overdosing. Disinfection was added once water started flowing. Prior to adding water into the distribution system the clearwell was drained and overflowed. Staff sampled for disinfectant in the distribution system daily and all disinfectant residual requirements were met at all service connections.
What should I do?
· There is nothing you need to do. You do not need to boil your water or take other actions. We do not know of any contamination, and none of our testing has shown disease-causing organisms in the drinking water.
· 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. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency . If it had been, you would have been notified within 24 hours. *Chlorine is added to the water to inactivate bacteria that may be present. Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches.* These symptoms are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.
What is being done? City of Las Vegas will be replacing worn actuators and valves for the backwash to waste and will be replacing turbidity analyzers. Additionally, alarms and automatic plant shutdown procedures are being replaced to ensure only high-quality water is introduced into distribution.
For more information, please contact:
Maria Gilvarry at 505-454-3832
Gilvarrym@lasvegasnm.gov
City of Las Vegas, NM3518025
905 12th Street
Las Vegas, NM 87701
*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.