To comply with State and Federal regulations, we will be annually issuing a report describing the quality of your drinking water. The purpose of this report is to raise your understanding of drinking water and awareness of the need to protect our drinking water sources. This report provides an overview of last year’s water quality. Included are details about where your water comes from, what it contains, and how it compares to State standards. If you have any questions about this report or concerning your drinking water, please contact Ernie Prievo at (315) 493-2210 or Tim Turck at (315) 493-1718. We want you to be informed about your drinking water. If you want to learn more, please attend any of our regularly scheduled monthly Joint Water meetings held at the West Carthage Municipal Building at 5:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month.

Our water source is a clean and plentiful spring fed source known as the Indian River located in Belfort , New York. The Village’s own 1,500 acres of uninhabited forest land that surrounds the drinking water source. The water from this source flows into a man made reservoir approximately two miles downstream. Once the water enters the reservoir a process of settling occurs before it enters the screen house. In the screen house the water passes through a fine screen prior to entering the 15 miles of transmission line. The water travels through the transmission pipe via gravity to the Village’s Slow Sand Filtration Plant located on West Street Road. The filter plant is operated 365 days a year by employees from Carthage and West Carthage who are New York State Licensed Operators. The operators conduct water quality testing , routine plant maintenance , as well as record daily water consumption. It should be noted that the reservoir is drained and cleaned once a year and the screens in the screen house are cleaned weekly. During 2000, our system did not experience any restriction of our water source.

Before entering the distribution system hydrofluosilic acid and zinc orthophosphate are added to the water. Hydrofluosilic acid adds fluoride to the water at a concentration of 1.0 mg/L and is monitored at the filter plant. Fluoride has been shown to reduce tooth decay and dental cavities. The New York State Department of Health also analyzes the fluoride concentration once per month. Zinc orthophosphate works to make the water less corrosive, thus , reducing the solubility of lead and copper that may be present in the distribution plumbing. This is continuously monitored at the filter plant. The target zinc orthophosphate concentration is 1.0 mg/L.

Our water system serves approximately 7,000 individuals through an estimated 1,800 service connections. This number includes the entire population of the two Villages as well as a small number of customers in the Towns of Wilna, Champion and Denmark. The total amount of water treated at the filter plant in 2000 totaled 194,700,324 gallons. The daily average of water treated and pumped into the distribution system was 534,891 gallons. This was an increase of 1,545,908 gallons of water from last year. Our highest single day was May 25^th , the day of the fire at the Carthage Bowling Alleys, when we pumped 752,000 gallons.

Carthage billed a daily average of 287,338 gallons while pumping 349,429 gallons. This represents a difference of 62,091 gallons of water per day not billed or 17.77 %. West Carthage billed a daily average of 169,117 gallons while pumping 185,462 gallons. This represents a difference of 16,345 gallons of water a day not billed or 8.81%. Some of this unaccounted for water loss was used to fight fires, clean streets, flush hydrants and other community provided services that require the use of water where metering or calculating this usage would be very difficult. The water rates for residents in the Village of Carthage are $1.70 per 100 cubic feet (748 gallons) , Town of Wilna residents pay $3.00 per 100 cubic feet , residents of the Village of West Carthage pay $2.40 per 100 cubic feet and the Towns of Champion and Denmark are charged $4.80 for 100 cubic feet of water used.

As the State regulations require, we routinely test your drinking water for numerous contaminants. These contaminants include: total coliform, turbidity, inorganic compounds, nitrate, nitrite, lead and copper, volatile organic compounds, total trihalomethanes, and synthetic organic compounds. The table presented below depicts which compounds were detected in your drinking water. The State allows us to test for some contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants do not change frequently. Some of our data, though representative, are more than one year old.

Notes:

1 – Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness of the water. We test it because it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of our filtration system. Our highest single turbidity measurement for the year occurred on 5/18/00. State regulations require that turbidity must always be below 5 NTU. The regulations require that 95% of the turbidity samples collected have measure less than or equal to 1.0 NTU. All of the measurements collected in 2000 were less than or equal to 1.0 NTU. Our daily average measurement for this year was 0.24 NTU.

2 – During 1999, six samples were collected from the West Carthage Distribution System and analyzed for lead and copper. The number presented represents the average of the two highest levels detected.

3 – The level presented represents the range of the six samples collected from the West Carthage Distribution System in 1999. Neither lead nor copper was detected above the action level at any of the sites tested.

4 – The level presented represents the 90^th percentile of the 14 sites tested for lead and copper in the Carthage Distribution System. A percentile is a value on a scale of 100 that indicates the percent of a distribution that is equal to or below it. The 90^th percentile is equal to or greater than 90% of the copper values detected at your water system. In this case, 14 samples were collected at your water system and the 90^th percentile value was the second highest value. The action levels for lead and copper were not exceeded in any of the samples collected.

5 - Water containing more than 20 mg/L of sodium should not be used for drinking by people on very restricted sodium diets. Water containing more than 270 mg/L of sodium should not be used for drinking by people on moderately restricted sodium diets.

Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible.

Yes, During 2000, our system was in compliance with all applicable State drinking water requirements.

Although our drinking water met or exceeded state and federal regulations, some people may be more vulnerable to disease causing microorganisms or pathogens in drinking water than the general population. Immuno-compromised persons such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice from their health care provider about their drinking water. EPA/CDC guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium, Giardia and other microbial pathogens are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791).

Reservoir ImprovementsVillage employees from both Carthage and West Carthage spent six weeks this summer rebuilding 310 feet of containment wall on the south and north side of the third pond at the Belfort Reservoir. This was the second phase of the project. Phase one consisted of rebuilding 300 feet of containment wall on the south side of the first and second ponds. This project was engineered and estimated to cost $140,00.00 using a licensed contractor. We completed phase one at a cost of $15,000.00 and this year we completed phase two at a cost of $23,000.00 for a total expense to date of $38,000.00. To date we have saved over 40% of the original cost estimate. We also installed new intake piping and raised them to draw water from 18 inches above the reservoir floor , greatly reducing the amount of sedimentation that was once entering the screen house. This improvement has reduced our raw water Turbidity levels to 0.19NTU and will increase the run times from our filter beds.

Thank you for allowing us to continue to provide your family with quality drinking water this year. We ask that all our customers help us protect our water sources. Should you have any questions about the information in this report or want to learn more about the service we provide please feel free to contact Ernie Prievo at ( 315) 493-2210 , Tim Turck at (315) 493-1718, or the New York State Department of Health at (315) 785-2277.