Carson City officials: Water monitoring missed; no known health effects

The Carson City Public Works water division missed some water monitoring in 2022 but no contamination or health effects are known to have occurred, according to the division.

“The missed monitoring was not for any acute contaminants that pose an immediate health risk,” Eddy Quaglieri, the city’s water utility manager, told the Appeal. “It is important to note that barium, mercury and lead are only required to be sampled every three years, so the 2022 sample is not a violation of primary drinking water standards. These specific samples for barium, mercury and lead, presented in the Consumer Confidence Report, are voluntarily sampled yearly at Quill Water Treatment Plant so there was no missed required sampling for these contaminants.”

Quaglieri said the city caught the errors early and took steps to come into compliance with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, including “resampling as soon as possible.” In March, the city water division reported the missed monitoring in its annual Consumer Confidence Report, which was a brochure sent to water customers. That measure satisfied one of NDEP’s compliance steps.

“Due to laboratory errors and mechanical failure, Carson City Water System failed to monitor for the list of contaminants in the chart below during 2022,” reads the report to customers. “We tested for these in all other years with no indication this contaminant was present at levels over the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). As this was a ‘failure to monitor’ violation and not an exceedance of a Maximum Contaminant Level, no known health effects are believed to have resulted due to the missed testing.”

The table sent to customers in spring identified four wells and the Quill Water Treatment Plant as missing tests for contaminants like barium, mercury, lead and nitrate, among others. Testing was missed at well 53 due to a pump failure, Quaglieri said. Past results on the table show contaminant levels below the MCL or not detected.

A table of missed monitoring compiled by Public Works and sent to Carson City water customers in March. According to the department, annual testing for barium, mercury and lead is done by the city voluntarily though only required every three years. 

“Again, the barium, mercury and lead are only required to be sampled every three years, so missing 2022 sample is not a violation of primary drinking water standards,” Quaglieri said.

Quaglieri said beside the mechanical failure of well 53, some samples were sent to a Eurofins laboratory out-of-state but never tested due to mix-ups at the lab. Additionally, some wells don’t come online until summer and will be tested accordingly.

A May 22 letter to Carson City from NDEP noted the monitoring violation and outlined steps to take.

“To date, NDEP understands that Carson City is scheduling monitoring to return to compliance,” NDEP officials said in a June 6 statement to the Appeal. “Sample results have not yet been provided to NDEP. Once monitoring is completed and results submitted to NDEP, Carson City will be returned to compliance. No formal enforcement is planned at this time.”

NDEP officials further said public notification requirements were completed through the city’s report to customers in March.

According to the city, the water division serves about 18,000 customer hookups using a mix of surface water and ground water. In 2022, total daily maximum production was 3.7 million gallons from 30 wells and the treatment plant. Total storage capacity, from 15 tanks, was above 26 million gallons. The average winter demand was about 5.8 million gallons per day (MGD), while the average summer demand was over 15 MGD.

In total, the city has 18,648 acre-feet per annum of water rights, with 11,115 used in 2022.

“The water utility also has available 3,200 (acre-feet) of drought storage water rights, which cannot be assigned to new development, but can only be used for emergency purposes and system safety factors, such as in times of severe drought,” reads the report sent to water customers.

For information about the city’s water division, visit https://www.carson.org/government/departments-g-z/public-works/divisions/water.