Annual Drinking Water Quality Report
Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority
PWS ID 1432001

Morris County MUA is pleased to provide you with our Annual Drinking Water Quality Report for the year 2007. This report includes results from Morris County MUA sample monitoring, these results are for you to incorporate into your CCR report with other additional sampling and results that you may have performed within your distribution system. We want to keep you informed about the excellent water quality and delivery services we have provided to you over the past year. Our goal is and always has been, to provide a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. Morris County MUA is exclusively a bulk water wholesaler. Our source is ground water, treated with sodium hypochlorite for disinfection and lime for pH adjustment.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has completed and issued the Source Water Assessment Report and Summary for this public water system, which is available at www.state.nj.us/dep/swap/ or by contacting the NJDEP, Bureau of Safe Drinking Water at 609-292-5550. For a brief summary of this report see page 3.

Morris County MUA is pleased to report that our drinking water is safe and meets federal and state standards.

If you have any questions about this report, contact Chief Engineer, John Scarmozza at (973-285-8386) or Superintendent, Randall Stalter at (973-584-5503). We want our valued customers to be informed about their water quality. If you want to learn more, feel free to attend any of our regularly scheduled meetings, call (973-285-8385) for date and time.

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-426-4791)

The sources of drinking water (both tap 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 include:

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

• Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming.

• Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems.

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

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

To ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations, which limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. Food and drug administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water, which must provide the same protection for public health.

Morris County M.U.A. routinely monitors for contaminants in your drinking water according to federal and state laws. The following table shows the results of our monitoring for the period of January 1^st to December 31^st, 2007. The Safe Drinking Water Act regulations allow monitoring waivers to reduce or eliminate the monitoring requirements for asbestos, volatile organic chemicals and synthetic organic chemicals. Our system received monitoring waivers for two of these types of contaminants, asbestos and synthetic organic chemicals. State law also allows us to monitor for some contaminants less then once a year because the concentrations of these contaminants do not change frequently. Some of our data, though representative, are more then one year old.

Listed in the table below are the contaminants that were detected. In this table you will find many terms and abbreviations you might not be familiar with. To help you better understand these terms we've provided the following definitions:

• Non-Detects (ND) - laboratory analysis indicates that the constituent is not present.

• Parts per million (ppm) or Milligrams per liter (mg/l) - one part per million corresponds to one minute in two years or a single penny in $10,000.

• Parts per billion (ppb) or Micrograms per liter - one part per billion corresponds to one minute in 2,000 years, or a single penny in $10,000,000.

• Maximum Contaminant Level - The “Maximum Allowed” (MCL) is the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water.  MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology.

• Maximum Contaminant Level Goal - The “Goal”(MCLG) is the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health.  MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.

• Treatment Technique (TT) – A treatment technique is a required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.

• Action Level (AL) – The concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow.

• Picocuries per liter (pCi/L) – picocuries per liter is a measure of the radioactivity in water.

• Maximum Residual Disinfectant  Level (MRDL) ­– The highest level of a disinfectant allowed in drinking water. There is convincing evidence that addition of a disinfectant is necessary for control of microbial contaminants.

• Maximum Residual Disinfectant Goal (MRDLG)- The level of a drinking water disinfectant below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MRDLGs do not reflect the benefits of the use of disinfectants to control microbial contamination.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water then the general population. Immuno-compromised persons such as persons with cancer who have undergone chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. EPA/CDC guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-4791).

Lead if present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing. Morris County M.U.A. is responsible for providing high quality drinking water, but can not control the variety of materials used in plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before using water for drinking and cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods, and steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline or at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead.