WATER TESTING, A RESPONSE FROM THE VILLAGE TO THE RECENT GUARDIAN ARTICLE

An important email notice from the Village:

In light of a recent article critical of the Village’s water collection and testing protocol, we would like to provide further information about our testing protocol and efforts underway to improve the quality of our drinking water. 

As you may have read, The Guardian released an article this week based on testing records collected from “the most populous cities east of the Mississippi River”. Criticism in this article about the Village of Croton-on-Hudson’s testing policy is both misleading and misguided.

Twice a year water samples are collected from 40 homes throughout Croton in an effort to monitor copper and lead levels. Collection bottles are provided to the homeowners, along with collection procedures, and the samples are sent to a certified lab for testing with the subsequent results submitted to the Westchester County Health Department. In February of this year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released suggested guidelines for homeowner tap sample collection procedures without any notification to the Village. The issue is the difference between the EPA’s revised suggested guidelines to “Place the opened sample bottle below the faucet and open the cold water tap as you would do to fill a glass of water”, as compared to the Village’s recommendation “To fill the bottle, please open the bottle under the tap and gently open the cold water tap. Fill the bottle slowly to the “Fill” mark.” The change in the guidelines are an effort to procure more accurate test results. To be clear, the revised EPA collection guidelines were updated without notification just four months ago, and are also “suggestions”, not regulatory requirements. Regardless, the Village will be implementing the EPA’s revised suggestions when collecting water samples moving forward. 

READ THE REST OF THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL HERE http://www.crotononhudson-ny.gov/Public_Documents/CrotonHudsonNY_Board/055EF3D2-000F8513