City in compliance with water safety standards

Saturday, April 1, 2006

The City of McCook beat Friday's deadline for compliance with government water standards by two months.

Mayor Dennis Berry notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a letter on Friday that the city is in full compliance with the requirements of the February 2005 Consent Decree.

The agreement between the city and the EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, the Nebraska Health Department, and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality required that the city have its drinking water system in full compliance with EPA standards for nitrates, uranium and arsenic no later than Friday.

In his letter to the EPA, Mayor Berry noted that the city has been in compliance with the order since the startup of the city's new drinking water treatment plant on Feb. 7, almost two months ahead of the deadline.

Since then, McCook's water has tested 4.8 to 6.1 parts per million of nitrates compared to a safety standard of 10 ppm; 21.1 to 27 parts per billion of uranium compared to the standard of 30 ppb, and 4.47 to 6.45 ppb of arsenic, compared to the 10 ppb standard.

"These tests results are very significant," Utilities Director Jesse Dutcher said. "McCook has the first municipal water system in the state of Nebraska, the Midwest, and perhaps the United States that has resolved nitrate, uranium and arsenic problems and been brought into compliance since the arsenic rule went into effect in January of 2006."

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