Starting the first week of November, Arlington Water Utilities ("AWU") is mailing a notice to its customers concerning the number of bacteriological samples collected in August 2015. This notice will be mailed throughout November. This notice outlines a technical violation of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality sample collection rules and is not related to quality of AWU's water in any way. The water quality in the City of Arlington has consistently met or been of much higher quality than required by water quality regulations.
For most customers, this notice will be printed on the back side of their City Services bill; other customers that have elected to not receive a printed bill will be mailed a separate printed notice. The notice is also available online at the City's website at www.arlington-tx.gov in both English and Spanish text.
Bacteriological samples are used to monitor water quality and indicate if there are certain types of bacteria in the water delivered to customers. The total number of bacteriological samples analyzed during any given month varies, based upon a variety of circumstances. However, AWU is required to submit at least 180 routine distribution coliform ("RDC") samples each month.
In August 2015, AWU collected 252 bacteriological samples. Under TCEQ regulations, some of these bacteriological samples are counted for the RDC sample requirement of 180 samples while others are counted toward different monthly compliance calculations but cannot be used in to meet the RDC regulation.
Unfortunately, there was an error in Arlington Water Utilities' software program to determine compliance with the TCEQ RDC sample regulations. The software erroneously counted a type of sample known as a repeat sample toward meeting the RDC sample requirement of at least 180 samples per month. This software programming error indicated a collection of 185 RDC samples, when it had actually only collected 176.
"Compliance with all regulations, whether they are water quality or monitoring regulations, is of critical importance to the City and the Water Utilities Department," said Director Walter "Buzz" Pishkur. "We apologize to our customers for this sample collection error and assure our residents it has been corrected."
If you have any questions regarding this violation, residents can contact Ann Lawson, AWU Laboratory Services Manager, at (817) 575-8966.
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