Do you know the source of your drinking water? It’s the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer stretching from Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho to west of the City of Spokane. The SVRP Aquifer was designated as a “sole source” aquifer in 1978 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Sole Source” means that the aquifer is our only affordable source of drinking water in a bi-state region serving drinking water to more than 600,000 people every day. This aquifer is among the fastest flowing in the world! This resource is not unlimited and must be protected from contamination and overuse.
The District is required annually to inform customers regarding chemicals in the drinking water that exceed drinking water standards. This report, called the Consumer Confidence Report, must be sent to customers before July 1st of each year (this report is distributed electronically).
The District maintains an archive of Consumer Confidence reports on our website at https://libertylake.org/resources/consumer-confidence-reports/
The District’s water system is permitted by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and must meet certain standards of construction, maintenance, frequency of water sampling, employ State Certified Operators, provide certain water availability and quantity, source control, wellhead protection, cross-connection control, fire protection, water conservation and facility security.
In accordance with the Washington State DOH, the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District has a coliform monitoring program. This program of monthly water quality tests is administered and conducted by Anatek Labs, which takes ten water samples per month at locations around the District’s distribution system identified in the Coliform Monitoring Program. The District has a history of very good bacteriological test results (with the exception of November 2019), which has allowed us to not chlorinate the water in the system. The District does own a chlorination unit that is kept on hand in case of emergencies.
A strict monitoring schedule is required by the DOH, to make sure the District is providing quality water to its consumers. Some of the properties tested for are:
- Inorganic chemical & physical properties
- Volatile organic chemicals (VOCs)
- Synthetic organic chemicals (SOCs)
- Nitrates
- Radium 226 & 228
- Lead/Copper
- Asbestos
- Herbicides
- Pesticides
- Coliform Bacteria
Liberty Lake supplies Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer water which is moderately hard water and typical for groundwater in most places. It also means it is mineral water because it contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, and the other good minerals, but not nearly in the quantities that would meet recommended dietary intake. That’s the bad news. The good news is that cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead and the other scary minerals are way below the levels that are a concern for even sensitive individuals. Liberty Lake works very hard to protect our water source and works hard to keep the water clean after we pump it into the system.
Based on the most recent testing records available, the District’s water source wells are consistently of good quality.
Resources:
https://www.spokaneaquifer.org/
