Ft Collins Loveland WD

TREATMENT PROCESS
The water treatment procedure at Soldier Canyon Filter Plant uses "conventional" treatment methods. Throughout the treatment process, certified operators and laboratory staff conduct numerous tests on your water to ensure it consistently meets or exceeds all state and federal water quality standards.

Treatment follows these key processes:

• Coagulation: Addition of chemicals like aluminum sulfate and polymers to cause tiny particles in water to clump together.
• Flocculation: Slow mixing of coagulated water with large rotating paddles to create large, heavy particles called floc.
• Sedimentation: A solid-liquid separation process that uses gravity to settle solid particles at the basin bottom where they're hydraulically removed. Plate or tube settlers enhance this separation process.
• Filtration: Passage of water through porous media to remove remaining suspended solids.
• Disinfection: Addition of chlorine to finished water as one of multiple barriers ensuring microbiologically-safe drinking water.

SOURCE WATER ASSESSMENT
The water delivered by FCLWD comes from the Tri-District treatment plant and the City of Fort Collins, drawing from the Poudre River and Horsetooth Reservoir. The Tri-Districts plant is now known as The Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Authority but remains owned and operated by the three original water districts. FCLWD also purchases water from the City of Loveland during peak summer demand and supplies water to Windsor, Loveland, and the Little Thompson Water District.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment provides a Source Water Assessment Report for our water supply. You can obtain a copy at www.colorado.gov/cipher/car under "Source Water Assessment Reports" or by contacting Chris Harris at 970-482-3143. This screening-level assessment identifies potential contamination risks but does not indicate that contamination has occurred or will occur.

Potential contamination sources in our water supply area include:

• Hazardous waste generators and chemical storage sites
• Toxic release inventory sites
• Permitted wastewater discharge locations
• Above ground, underground and leaking storage tanks
• Solid waste sites and abandoned mines
• Industrial, commercial and transportation facilities
• Urban, recreational, agricultural and forested areas
• Septic systems and oil/gas wells

WATER QUALITY MONITORING
The Fort Collins-Loveland Water District and Soldier Canyon Filter Plant routinely monitor for contaminants according to Federal and State laws. The detailed data shows all detections from January through December 2017, unless otherwise noted. Colorado requires monitoring for some contaminants less than yearly as concentrations typically remain stable.

WATER SOURCES AND CONTAMINANTS
Municipal water sources (both tap and bottled) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over land or underground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and can pick up substances from animal presence or human activity.

Potential contaminants include:

• Microbial contaminants from sewage treatment, septic systems, agricultural operations, and wildlife
• Inorganic contaminants including salts and metals (naturally occurring or from urban runoff, wastewater discharge, oil/gas production, mining, farming)
• Pesticides and herbicides from agriculture, urban runoff, and residential uses
• Radioactive contaminants (naturally occurring or from oil/gas production and mining)
• Organic chemical contaminants including synthetic and volatile organics from industrial processes, petroleum production, gas stations, stormwater runoff, and septic systems

To ensure tap water safety, Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment and the FDA establish regulations limiting contaminant levels in public and bottled water supplies. All drinking water, including bottled water, may contain small amounts of some contaminants, which doesn't necessarily indicate a health risk.

SPECIAL HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
Immunocompromised individuals, including cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune disorders, some elderly, and infants may be particularly vulnerable to infections. These individuals should seek advice about drinking water from their healthcare providers. For more information about contaminants and potential health effects, or to receive EPA and CDC guidelines on reducing infection risk from cryptosporidium and microbiological contaminants, call the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791 or visit http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants.

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