Muskingum County Water Manager provides update on water standards violation

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- An official with the Muskingum Water Department is updating the community about a water notice sent out last month.

Some Muskingum County residents received a letter notifying them the water system was in violation of drinking water standards. Water Department Manager, Don Madden, said the department is working to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.

“Today we’re meeting with a consultant from a company called Utilities Services and he’s helping us with an issue called TTHM. TTHM’s in a nutshell is the chlorine in the water, the longer that it is in contact with the water it breaks down and forms this byproduct called TTHM.”

Madden says the TTHM level in the water should be 80 parts per billion, but it was 81 parts per billion in one part of the system when it was tested. Madden said the level does not pose a harm to residents and that it’s still safe to drink.

“There really wasn’t any boil advisories. There was no need for that. That’s not part of. It’s simply a notification to the public…These are very, extremely low levels that we’re talking about. When we start talking about parts per billion a few years ago we weren’t even able to test down to those levels. And the standards are set so, such a margin of safety that a human could not, would not be able to consume enough water to ever cause them harm in my opinion.”

Madden said the risk is so low that one part per billion is equivalent to one second in 31.7 years.