2001 Water Quality Report

Your water is treated at one of these three modern treatment plants.

Extensive Treatment and Testing Ensures High-Quality Water

Montecito Water District obtains most of its water from Lake Cachuma and Jameson Lake. Both are high quality sources of water from the protected watershed of the Santa Ynez backcountry. The District protects and improves its natural high water quality with an extensive treatment and testing program, which consists of:

State-Certified Water Quality Experts. Our own in-house staff of state-certified water treatment operators, working with independent laboratories, oversees our water quality programs.
Intensive Testing Program. Every year Montecito Water District conducts thousands of water quality tests on hundreds of water samples. These include daily, weekly, and more intensive quarterly, semi-annual and annual tests.
Incredible Accuracy. Our water quality tests can detect incredibly small amounts of substances in the water. For example, the most accurate test measures to less than one hundredth of a part per billion. That is equivalent to one drop of a substance in 1,700,000 gallons of water, or about 70 swimming pools.
Advanced Treatment Process. Your water is treated in Montecito’s own state-of the-art treatment plants, Bella Vista and Doulton, as well as in the regional Cater Treatment Plant. The Bella Vista and Doulton plants handle water from Jameson Lake, while the Cater plant treats Lake Cachuma water.

Water Moving Through the Environment
Sources of drinking water (both tap water and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells.

As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity. Contaminants that may be present in source water before treatment include:

Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, that may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.

Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, that can be naturally occurring or result from urban storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming.

Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff, and residential uses.

Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, that are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff, and septic systems.

Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally occurring or the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

Definitions Used in the Chart:
mg/l: Milligrams per liter, or parts per million. 1 mg/l is equal to about one drop in 17 gallons of water.
ug/l: Micrograms per liter, or parts per billion. 1 ug/l is equal to about one drop in 17,000 gallons of water.
TT: (Treatment Technique): A required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.

AL: (Regulatory Action Level): The concentration of a contaminant, which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements, which a water system must follow.
NA: Not applicable.
NS: No standard.
ND: Non-detected.
pCi/l: pico curies per liter, a measure of radiation.
umhos/cm: Micromhos per centimeter (an indicator of dissolved minerals in the water).

NTU: nephelometric turbidity unit.
Public Health Goal (PHG): The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. PHGs are set by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG): The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs are set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. Primary MCLs are set as close to the PHGs or MCLGs as is economically and technologically feasible. Secondary MCLs are set to protect the odor, taste, and appearance of drinking water.