Inside the lab where Yuma’s drinking water is tested

According to the Centers for Disease Control, May 5 through May 11 is National Drinking Water Week.

The goal is to encourage people to learn more about where their water comes from.

Although the United States has some of the safest drinking water in the world, it’s still important to know how that water gets to faucets and what makes it safe for uses such as drinking, bathing, cooking, and laundry.

Drinking water is any water that comes from a tap, and the main source of Yuma’s drinking water comes from the Colorado River.

However, before that water comes through the faucets, it’s treated, filtered, and then tested for bacteria, like E.coli.

This process protects millions of people from dying of water-borne diseases.

The City of Yuma’s public affairs coordinator, Dave Nash, told News 11, “When you turn the tap on, you expect it to work and have a perfect product every single time. You don’t think about it, it’s just there. But actually…there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, to make sure that the water is safe.”

Yuma’s water laboratory is where all of the city water testings are done.

The lab monitors for total coliform, a bacteria in drinking water that if found could indicate a possible presence of harmful, disease-causing organisms.

They collect a minimum of 100 samples of water a month, along the eight different water routes within the service area.

Water quality compliance manager at the laboratory, Betsy Bowman, explained what she looks for when testing water for total coliform and E.coli.

“No yellow, then [the water sample] is negative for total coliform bacteria. If [the water sample] happens to turn yellow, we also put them under a UV light and check for fluorescents. If they fluoresce, that means [the water sample] is positive for E.coli, and of course, drinking water and E.coli is a no-no,” Bowman said.

If drinking water ever tests positive for E.coli, the public is required to be notified within 24 hours.

To learn more about how water works, Yuma’s City Hall has a presentation on display throughout National Drinking Water Week.

The display includes water conservation suggestions, drinking water quality data, displays illustrating how filtration works at our Agua Viva plant and a visualization of how many gallons of City of Yuma water you can buy compared to a $1.45 plastic bottle of water.

As required by the Safe Drinking Water Act, water utilities must provide customers with an annual water quality report, also called a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). A CCR identifies the quality of local drinking water and if any contaminants are detected and if so, which ones. Also available in the report is information on a community’s local source for drinking water.