RMOW Community Water System - Inspection Report

Inspection Information:

This facility was given a low hazard rating.
More information on hazard ratings.

Violations:
A summary of the violations found during the inspection are listed below.

Code

Description / Observation / Corrective Action

304

Inadequate Water Quality / Disinfection / Treatment / Quantity Observation: 25 Inadequate treatment for the removal of parasitic cysts of Giardia / Cryptosporidium Corrective Action: As discussed during our meeting of March 31, 2004 the chlorination system on 21 Mile Creek source does not provide protection against organisms such as protozoa. I understand your consultants (Dayton and Knight Engineering) have confirmed the validity of this approach of providing additional treatment to address this important issue. As we further discussed, by installing a second treatment barrier, concerns over the start up of the chlorinator (post shut down - short term lack of residual) may also be addressed. This is consistent with the USEPA approach to surface water treatment in achieving 3 log reduction for giardia; 2 log reduction for cryptosporidium; and maintaining turbidity at less than 1 NTU.

Actions Taken:
Issue Permit
A revised Permit to Operate has been issued for this system granting additional time to develop a cross connection control plan (new date due is December 31, 2005.
Information Exchanged
The 2004 bacteriological sample range report (copy attached) indicates satisfactory water quality was maintained over this reporting period.

Comments:
Thank you for your efforts to comply with the terms and conditions of your Permit to Operate this system. Further to these conditions we offer the following recommendations and request for additional information: 1) Kindly advise of your intentions to install additional treatment barriers (ie UV disinfection) on surface water sources - which currently do not provide protection against infections agents such as giardia and cryptosporidium. 2) We understand that the RMOW Community Water distribution system is a level 4 system according to the EOCP classification criteria. Furthermore, we note that the RMOW currently meets the EOCP criteria for operator certification and support your efforts in this regard. 3) Additional time (until December 31, 2005) has been granted to develop a Cross Connection Control Program. Please recognize that this does not imply that the plan will be implemented immediately. Likely, a CCC plan for a system of this size will likely take several years to fully implement and this is anticipated. 4) We understand the RMOW is undertaking a source water availability study over several years in an attempt to maximize reliance on groundwater sources of supply. Similarly we also request long term plans be developed for treatment and distribution system improvements. We appreciate the efforts of the RMOW in assuming operation and ownership of the Alpha Creek water system and you will note that both the Alpha Creek and Alpine Meadows water systems have been amalgamated in our computer based filing system. Accordingly your office will now only receive one permit for the entire network (Emerald Estates being the sole exception and maintains status as an independent water system, although also under RMOW ownership and operation. 5) We have received and attached to your ERP plan the recently submitted updated contact info for your staff. Thank you. Please note this information should be merged and updated into the main body of the document at the regularly scheduled annual review, after which a revised plan should be submitted to our office for updating your file. This will be particularly important this year in view of the temporary boil water advisory issued during the multiple failures of the distribution system earlier this year, including any lessons learned from the exercise. 6) Your report of the annual monitoring results has been received. I appreciate the effort required to generate this documentation. In future, we would like to see additional emphasis placed on describing the % of groundwater Vs. surface water (volume and days) supplied to your customers. Additionally, a greater focus should be given to trends in water quality; specifically in the areas of turbidity levels; THM results; metals; general ions and other water chemistry characteristics. Ideally a trend by year analysis can be developed over the next year or two. You may wish to review the annual reports from other municipalities in the VCHA including North / West Vancouver; GVRD; etc. Thank you for your continued cooperation.