Anderson Regional Joint Water System has received its fourth consecutive, and sixth overall, Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) award from the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Since 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has developed several new regulations to reduce the risk of biological contamination while limiting the risk from disinfecting chemicals and their byproducts.
The Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) was developed to help water systems meet successively more stringent regulations and achieve higher levels of water quality. Optimization emphasizes improving the operation of existing facilities rather than building new facilities.
The performance based program continuously monitors water quality for levels that exceed standards established by federal and state regulation.
In order to meet disinfection byproducts regulations and microbial removal requirements, surface water plants must carefully control their treatment processes, including source water selection and protection, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection as well as managing water age and consistency in the distribution system.
AWOP criteria for excellence requires a system to meet increased settled water turbidity standards, exceptional standards for filtered water turbidity and meet existing disinfection by-product criteria for trihalomethanes (TTHM), haloacetic acids (HAA), bromate and chlorite.
Anderson Regional Water achieved 100% compliance of the water quality standards established by AWOP for calendar year 2011. Meeting these more stringent standards cultivates overall excellence while simultaneously bolstering compliance with baseline water quality regulations.
Participation in the voluntary AWOP program demonstrates Anderson Regional Water’s commitment of providing affordable, high quality water to its customers.
“This is just another example of a quality regional water provider that we are all very fortunate to have” said Commission chairman, Dyke Spencer.
Anderson Regional Water is a partnership of 15 rural and municipal water districts devoted to providing a high-quality, clean, safe, reliable, economical flow of treated water to its wholesale customers in Anderson and Pickens counties. For more information please visit their website www.arjwater.com.
