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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER City of Rawlins Did Not Meet Treatment Requirements Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we did to correct this situation. We routinely monitor your water for turbidity (cloudiness). This tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. Water samples for the month of June 2021 showed 36.1% of turbidity measurements were over 1.0 NTU (turbidity units), with a maximum turbidity of 1 NTU. The standard is that no more than 5 percent of samples may exceed 1.0 NTU per month for our alternative filtration system. Normal turbidity levels at our plant are 0.15 NTU turbidity units. What should I do? You do not need to boil your water or take other actions. We do not know of any contamination, and none of our testing has shown disease-causing organisms in the drinking water. People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at: (800)426-4791. What does this mean? Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. These are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice. What happened? What was done? • Due to increased demand combined with reduced flows from the springs, we were using more water from Peaking Reservoir. This water requires more treatment, and as a result our filters have been pushed to their limits. • We have increased the chorine residual to 2.5-3 mg/l as a safety precaution. • We corrected issues with our filter cleaning programming by working with SCADA contractors. • Filter #1 had a broken valve, which we have replaced. We are also working to replace the screens in Filter Once this filter is back online, we will have increased capacity which will further help keep our NTU under 1.0. • In the next few months, engineers will be assessing what is needed to replace the springs infrastructure, including springs’ boxes and collection pipelines. This infrastructure upgrade is planned for the next few years. • We are gearing up to repair two significant leaks along the main line from the springs to the plant this fall. • In July we have not exceeded our turbidity requirements. This is primarily due to the mandatory water restrictions as implemented on July 20, 2021. A big thank you everyone who is making a difference by conserving water! For more information, please contact Mira Miller, City of Rawlins Community Relations Coordinator, at [PHONE REDACTED] ext. 1022. Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail. This notice is being sent to you by City of Rawlins Public Water System ID#: WY5600045 Date Distributed: July 30, 2021 ---PAGE BREAK--- The Water Treatment Division and the Rawlins Fire Department need our entire community’s help now to conserve water. It is essential to work together now to guarantee that we have enough water for household uses and to ensure fire suppression can be met. City water demand exceeded 3.5 million gallons per day for over two weeks, and our system cannot meet this demand, especially with the decreased water supply from the springs. This has been complicated due to infrastructure issues at our water sources and at the treatment plant. We are enacting mandatory water restrictions throughout our community to help guarantee enough water is available for fire protection, drinking and other household uses. Mandatory Water Restrictions to conserve water for household uses and fire suppression • Only water on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday • Only water from Midnight-10am and 6pm-Midnight • Do not waste water, such as allowing it to run down the street or washing hard surfaces Additionally, on the reverse of this letter is our official exceedance letter as required by the EPA. Due to the increased demand for water and therefore using more turbid (cloudy) reservoir water, we exceeded the turbidity requirements for the month of June. You do not need to boil your water and we do not know of any contamination. We have also increased our chlorine residual to ensure adequate disinfection. Please see letter on reverse for more information. For water restrictions, our current plan is to provide notice by distributing warnings printed on yellow paper and placed in doorjambs or given in person before fines are issued. If you receive a yellow notice, please take it seriously and reduce your water use. Fines may be given after the notice is provided. Although the law provides for surcharges, there is no immediate plan to bill a surcharge for going over 6,000 gallons/month. If a surcharge is added, they will not be added without notice and the amount allowed will be set at more than 6,000/month. You can sign up to receive direct notice for “City of Rawlins News” at rawlinswy.org/notifyme. Want more information? We have a complete 45-minute report as presented to City Council and additional information on infrastructure, our Platte River Water rights and much more available at rawlinswy.org/waterrules. You can also stop by City Hall for this webpage to be provided in a written format or call us at [PHONE REDACTED]. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION TO KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE! Lots of great summer activities taking place! • National Night Out: Tuesday, August 3 at Bolton Park from 5:00pm - 9:00pm. Call [PHONE REDACTED] or visit rawlinswy.org/calendar • Music in the Park Last of the year! Thursday August 12 from 5:30-9:00pm at Washington Park: Call 324-PLAY or “Rawlins Family Recreation Center” on Facebook • Latino Heritage Celebration: Join us at Depot Park from 4-9pm on August 14th for music, games, food contests, crafts, dancing demonstration, history and more. Call 324- PLAY or visit rawlinswy.org/LHC • To receive direct news from the City via email or text, including water restrictions and much more, you can sign up for "City of Rawlins News" at rawlinswy.org/notifyme