Water Quality

Reporting Water Quality Problems

To report water quality problems, leaks, outages, low pressure, etc. call:

(253) 502-8384 — Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
(253) 502-8344 — All other times

Frequently asked questions about discolored water

Meeting and Exceeding Federal Regulations

Federal regulations require more extensive testing than ever before. Water utilities used to test for just four or five organic chemicals and a dozen inorganic chemicals. Now testing must be done for over 80 regulated contaminants and more than 50 unregulated chemicals, even if they don’t exist in our water.

Each week Tacoma Water takes samples from around the water system to check for bacteria and chlorine residuals. State Department of Health rules require 150 samples each month for a system of Tacoma Water’s size. We routinely take more than 220 samples.

Tacoma Water also samples for other microscopic organisms such as giardia and cryptosporidium. Sampling is not yet required for cryptosporidium, but since it has been blamed for making people sick in other cities around the world, we want to know at what levels it exists in our water. Samples taken over the past 4 years indicate a very low level of the organism in our Green River source water, which is what would be expected from a protected watershed such as ours. This is also why we have such low levels of coliform bacteria in our Green River source water. Our source water’s bacteria level is far below the levels allowed for unfiltered water systems. Regulations allow up to 20 fecal coliform per sample of untreated river water; the Green River’s untreated raw water has a typical level of only between 2 and 5 per sample. These bacteria are quickly killed by the chlorine added at our treatment facility at the Green River headworks near Palmer in King County.

Each year the Washington State Department of Health thoroughly inspects our headworks and watershed operations. The Health Department’s engineer evaluates our system operation and makes suggestions on how to improve the way we do things. Reliable operation and treatment is always the most critical concern. All water must meet or exceed the highest standard or we will not send it to our customers.

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Tacoma Water Inorganic Analysis

We are required to monitor our water sources for inorganic chemical and physical substances. Click here to view our inorganic analysis results. If you have questions regarding our inorganic monitoring please call (253) 502-8207.

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What about Lead and Copper?

To comply with the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule, Tacoma Water tested a group of homes for lead and copper in 1990. Studies have found that ingesting lead or copper can cause health problems, especially in children. Exposure to lead and copper often comes from home plumbing. Copper from pipes and lead from lead pipe solder slowly dissolves in standing water.

If you live in a house with copper plumbing, you should run the water for a short period before using it if the water has not been used for more than five or six hours. If your home has galvanized plumbing, running the tap before using the water will eliminate zinc, rust and traces of lead.

Tacoma Water recommends that the cold water kitchen tap be flushed for at least 15 to 30 seconds each morning before drawing water for drinking or cooking. Also, once a month, turn on all the unused water taps in your home, one at a time, and let them run for about 15 seconds. This will help reduce stale water tastes and odors that may have developed in unused pipes.

Because metals such as lead and copper dissolve more readily in hot water, Tacoma Water recommends that you not use hot tap water for cooking or drinking. If you have an instant hot water machine, run a little hot water before using any to clear out standing water. If your refrigerator has an automatic icemaker, you should empty it and allow it to refill regularly, also to clear out standing water.

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Corrosion Control

The Environmental Protection Agency created a regulation to deal with lead and copper corrosion called the "Lead and Copper Rule." It requires water systems to study their water to determine the best way to reduce corrosion of home plumbing and thereby reduce the amount of lead and copper people ingest.

In 1992 Tacoma Water began sampling more than 100 homes for lead and copper levels from first use water in the morning to get the highest possible levels that occur in the home. The results of repeated rounds of sampling showed that levels were very near what is called the "Action Level." This is the level at which a system must take action to reduce the corrosive properties of their water, even though this level may not be high enough to cause harm. Being at this level and being a system serving more than 100,000 people, required us to complete a Corrosion Control Optimization Study to determine how best to chemically treat our water to reduce the amount of lead and copper it corroded while sitting in our customer's pipes. The study revealed that the best way to reduce corrosion was to raise the pH of the water from its natural 7.0 to a less corrosive 7.8.

To raise the pH requires adding a chemical such a sodium hydroxide. To do this we decided to construct a corrosion control plant midway on our pipeline. This facility was completed and put in service in the spring of 1997. We gradually raised the feed rate to raise the pH during the summer and fall. When we did another round of sampling in October 1997, the levels of lead and copper were drastically reduced to half of their previous levels. Monitoring of pH and lead and copper levels will continue, but we feel this project will prove to be a major benefit to our customers.

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Updated: July 28, 2008