Water Quality Is More Than a Reservoir Issue

To ensure drinking water quality, watershed and aquifer lands need to be preserved. At the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, our mission is to provide our customers with a reliable supply of high-quality water. As stewards to more than 26,000 acres of land, we manage our land and water supplies to fulfill our mission, now and in the future. This brochure explains our land policy, which includes why we acquire and sell land.

Over 80 percent of the region’s tap water comes from 10 reservoirs located in the district towns of Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Killingworth, Madison, North Branford, and Woodbridge. The balance of the water comes from the Quinnipiac and Mill River aquifers located in Hamden and Cheshire. The watersheds that replenish these reservoirs and aquifers cover about 118 square miles. How large is that? It’s almost six times larger than the city of New Haven or twice the size of Washington, D.C.

To ensure that your tap water is consistently of high quality, we adhere to a multi-barrier approach that encompasses source water protection, treatment, distribution and extensive water quality monitoring. It takes a network of over 1,550 miles of pipes, pumping stations and storage tanks to deliver water in the region. We carefully maintain this extensive distribution system to assure that water is available when you turn on your faucet. Our source water protection efforts include security patrols, review of development plans that may threaten the watershed areas, and limited public access to the protected open space, as well as the mapping of resources and inspection of activities within the watersheds. We also operate a regional household hazardous waste collection facility.

Another critical element in our source water protection efforts is land acquisition and protection. We spend several million dollars each year to buy watershed lands. This is an important investment for the long-term protection of our region’s water supply. We are committed to funding future acquisition of watershed properties critical to the protection of both surface and groundwater.

How Do We Provide High-Quality Water?

Before water ever reaches your tap, it goes through a multi-step process:

Protect: Our source water protection program focuses on watershed management and aquifer protection to maintain the quality of our drinking water sources.

Treatment: Ground water is naturally filtered underground. Reservoir water is treated at our filtration plants. Both ground and reservoir water are disinfected with chlorine to kill microbes that can cause illness. Fluoride is added to prevent dental cavities and phosphate to minimize corrosion of pipes.

Distribute: Finished water is delivered to customers through a network of pipes, pumping stations and storage tanks. We carefully maintain this extensive distribution system.

Monitor: We conduct thousands of tests a month in our state-certified laboratory. We collect and test samples from numerous locations throughout our distribution system, along with filtration plants as well as lakes and aquifers.

Continue to Page 2 of 5: Water Quality Is a Land Issue

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