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First of all, we want to say that the total number of offending water departments found to have a chronic history of failing to conduct required water testing numbered… 34 out of around 2,800. For those interested in statistics, that amounts to roughly 1.2 percent of the water departments in the State of Missouri.

“Oh… Well that’s in Missouri. That sort of thing doesn’t happen where I live.”

With recent budget cuts all across the board in pretty much every department of every city government in the country… we find it hard to believe that anyone could not think that some people, somewhere, would attempt to save money by cutting corners.

Jefferson City, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Natural Resources today released a list of 34 drinking water systems in the state that have chronically failed to complete drinking water testing required by state law.

The systems listed have at least three major monitoring violations in a 12-month period. While failing to monitor does not necessarily mean the water is unsafe, routine testing by a facility is a crucial part of maintaining a safe water supply.

The department requires all public water systems to test for bacteria at least once a month to verify these systems are providing safe drinking water to the public. The vast majority of community and non-community public water systems in Missouri comply with all monitoring requirements and meet all drinking water standards. This current list of 34 chronic violators represents only 1.2 percent of the approximately 2,800 public drinking water systems in Missouri.

To view more details on the violators listed, visit the department’s Website at dnr.mo.gov/env/wpp/chronic/index.html.

These systems’ owners have been sent multiple violation notices in addition to certified letters informing them that chronic failure to monitor is unacceptable. ( source )

Do we think people need to immediately stop drinking water from the tap because a few water department here and there decided to cut corners when it came to testing? Absolutely not!

The United States has one of the best, if not THE best, infrastructures for the purification and distribution of safe, clean drinking water in the world. That does NOT mean, however, that problems don’t manifest themselves from time-to-time — as demonstrated by the excerpts above from an article about water testing deficiencies in Missouri over the past 12 months.

Do we think more people need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for making sure the water they drink contains no harmful bacteria? Of course we do! With so many inexpensive and easy-to-use test kits available we see no reason why people — especially private well owners — should not perform periodic testing for basic water quality parameters.


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