AWWA ACE65209

In South Korea, the City of Seoul Water Works (SWW) has conducted a customer tap waterquality certification program since November 2001. The program is part of itswater quality management system to enhance reliability and meet customersatisfaction of its municipal drinking water supply. Under this program more than50,000 drinking water taps are checked each year. A total of 404,747 taps have beencovered by SWW since 2001. The targeted sites include apartment complexes, schools,households, public parks, and shopping malls. In addition to SWW employees, thecustomer tap water quality certification team consists of representatives fromenvironmental or citizen groups.While SWW's finished water meets the national water quality standards set forth by theKorea Ministry of Environment, it is well documented that city water can deteriorateupon standing in customers' water storage systems that have not been properlymaintained. Many residential and commercial facilities in the city have indoor waterstorage systems. At each targeted site the team collects a cold water sample from afaucet and examines the conditions and integrity of the water pipes and storagesystems.Each water sample is tested on-site for five parameters including chlorine residual. Ifthe water meets the national drinking water quality standards, the team issues andattaches a water quality certificate to the faucet. If it does not meet the standards, thefollowing secondary parameters including E. coli are tested back in the laboratory. Ifthe team finds inadequate plumbing or poor sanitary conditions that could create waterquality problems, they provide guidance to the occupant to correct the problems andkeep a record of the conditions of the site until the problems are solved. If depletion ofthe residual chlorine occurs due to excessive water age by detention in a storage tankmaintained in a home or business, the team recommends that the customer's water besupplied directly from public mains. Replacement or rehabilitation of a residence'splumbing is also suggested if the piping is severely deteriorated. The Customer Tap Water Quality Certification (CTWQC) teams have identified customers' needs; customers not only want to knowabout their tap water quality but also realize the importance of maintaining their waterstorage systems for water quality protection. The CTWQC program has contributed tothe enhancement of customer confidence and satisfaction on tap water quality and theformation of partnerships with customers and environmental and citizen groups. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

06/01/2007

Number of Pages:

37

File Size:

1 file