Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
2003 Report on your Drinking Water - a message from your local water department

Town of Canton
Public Works Department
Public Water Supply # 3050000

 

Canton’s Water Supply
Canton uses an average of 2.5 million gallons of water per day. About 94% of this water is supplied by the MWRA through the connection of our water system. The remaining 6% is supplied by Canton from the Canton Treatment and Pumping Facility utilizing the high quality source water of Canton Wells.

The Town of Canton has a distribution system of over 120 miles of water mains. The distribution system consists of a network of pipes, valves, hydrants and service lines. This system takes water from the MWRA and our own system and delivers water to homes, businesses and other facilities for drinking and commercial uses. The system is also used for fire protection. The Town is constantly improving our system by:

• Bi-annual leak detection surveys to reduce water waste
• Review security of the water system facilities
• Construction of Wells No. 9, 11, and 12
• Radio Read Meter Replacement Program
• Rebuild meters larger than 2” in place

On a daily basis our water crews are constantly on the lookout for water system leaks, checking and verifying pressure, flushing pipelines to keep the water as clean as possible and replacing faulty meters. The Canton Water Department has also replaced extensive amounts of water mains and numerous services throughout the Town. In addition, Canton tests the quality of our water by gathering weekly test samples at 11 test sites throughout the Town.

Lead Analysis and Results
Under DEP regulations, Canton’s Water Department collected tap water samples from homes that are likely to have high lead levels. DEP requires that 9 out of 10, or 90%, of these sample homes must have lead levels below the Action Level of 15 parts per billion (ppb). Canton collected samples from 30 homes. This sampling showed that 90% of the homes had lead levels below 10 ppb. This level meets the action level and therefore Canton meets the Lead and Copper Rule. Canton also met the Copper Action Level of 1.3 ppm.

Water Analysis
The Town of Canton and the MWRA analyze water samples on a routine basis to ensure compliance with the state and federal regulatory requirements. Listed below are substances detected in Canton’s drinking water during 2003. The table also shows the amount (Detected Level) of each substance found in the water compared to the highest level allowed by law, the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). Not listed are more than 100 substances for which we tested that were not detected in our water during 2003.

SUBSTANCE (UNITS) HIGHEST LEVEL ALLOWED (MCL) DETECTED LEVEL

GOAL (MCLG)

VIOLATION HOW IT GET
IN THE WATER
SODIUM (mg/l) N/A 20.0 N/A
NO		 Erosion of natural products
N/A – No Standard
Definitions of terms and abbreviations (e.g., MCL and MCLG, etc.) are found on the attached MWRA Annual Water Quality Report. The MWRA Report also includes other "required" U.S. EPA information for consumers.

For detailed information on the status of these projects please call the Canton Water Department at (781) 821-5017.

As a Canton Water Department customer, we hope you find this report informative and useful. If you require more information on any particular topic, or have specific questions, contacts and phone numbers for MWRA and the US EPA are provided in the report.

Regards,
Ronald Redquest
Supervisor, Water Department