Office Location: 3570 Airline Hwy, Hollister, CA 95023
Telephone: (831) 637-4670
QUESTIONS
WHAT HAPPENS IF I USE A SELF-REGENERATING WATER SOFTENER?
Self-regenerating water softeners that use salt, the type that uses rock salt or potassium, may deposit up to 600 pounds of brine into the sewer system and into the environment each year. That's a problem because Sunnyslope County Water District wastewater treatment plant cannot remove these salts during the treatment process and these salts are recycled back into the groundwater.
District Regulations require our wastewater customers to replace their self-regenerating water softeners with either an "On-Demand" or "Replaceable Cartridge" water softener by the year 2005. Our Regional Water Quality Control Board Discharge Permit requires us to reduce the salt byproducts in our wastewater effluent.
WHY IS THAT?
The cloudy water is caused by tiny air bubbles in the water, similar to the gas bubbles in carbonated beverages and beer. After a while, the bubbles rise to the top and are gone. Then the cloudiness disappears. This type of cloudiness occurs more often in the winter when the drinking water is cold.
DOES IT REALLY MATTER IF I DON'T FIX IT?
Yes, it does. Drips waste a precious resource - water, and it costs you money. As an example, if you have a faucet that drips 60 times a minute, this adds up to over 3 gallons each day, or 1,225 gallons each year.
Toilet flushing uses a lot of water, actually, 40% of a household's total water usage. Putting something in the toilet that takes up space, like a water filled jug, is a good idea. But, putting a brick in the tank is not a good idea, because bricks tend to crumble and might damage your toilet.
Place a dye tablet or a couple of drops of food coloring in the back)tank and don't flush the toilet for 15-30 minutes. If color appears in the toilet bowl, you have a leak. Sunnyslope County Water District has dye tablets available for no charge for its customers.
No. Sunnyslope County Water District is a special district created by local residents to provide local service in accordance with the California State Water Code. The District is responsible directly to the customers of the District. Although the District participates and collaborates with the San Benito County Water District and the City of Hollister Water Department in specific projects and programs for efficiency purposes, it is not part of or under the jurisdiction of those water agencies.
The customer is responsible for any leaks on the customer's side of the meter. Sunnyslope County Water District is responsible for leaks on the street side of the meter.
Water hardness is dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium and occurs in our water supply. If the amount of dissolved Calcium Carbonate is above 130 ppm or 8 grains per gallon, water is considered hard and can cause scale to build up in pipes, on faucets, and leave white spots on dishware. The District's water hardness ranges from 99 to 420 ppm or 6 to 25 grains per gallon.
Taste comes from the dissolved minerals in the water. The two most common reasons for poor tasting or smelling water are: (1) chlorine odor (if the smell is particularly bothersome, let the water stand in an open container and the chlorine will dissipate) and (2) a rotten egg odor, caused by a non-toxic (in small amounts) hydrogen sulfide dissolved in the water and usually found in the hot water faucet. A remedy is to slightly turn up the temperature in your hot water heater. Also if you let the water flush for a few seconds, the smell will disappear.
Chlorine is added to the water pumped from the District's wells and the surface water source from the LESSALT Water Treatment Plant to provide a high degree of disinfection over a long period of time. We measure the chlorine residual at various locations throughout our water distribution system daily and on a continuous basis at the LESSALT Water Treatment Plant utilizing two continuous chlorine residual analyzers.The weekly microbiological tests we perform look for the presence of indicator organisms called coliform bacteria. If these indicator organisms are detected, there is a potential that other pathogenic (disease causing) organisms may also be present. Our system is protected against microbiological contamination, and the water you drink contains a small amount of chlorine to maintain a disinfectant capability. We have never detected E. Coli in our water system.
No. Fluoride is not added to the District's water supply. However, fluoride does occur naturally and is present in the water supply between 0 ppb to 360 ppb. By comparison, the fluoride level does not exceed the California Maximum Contaminant Level of 2000 ppb.Several questions and parts of questions and answers were reprinted from "Plain Talk About Drinking Water," by the American Water Works Association. For additional information, visit http://www.awwa.org