Water Supply Information About The Local Provider
Water Supplier: City of Florence and Florence County Water
Water Sources: Great Pee Dee River (surface water) and Groundwater Wells
January, 2020
The City of Florence provides water to the City customers, the Florence County customers, and the Town of Timmonsville. Some customers get water from the surface water plant, some get water from the wells, and some get a combination of both.
The surface water can be identified because of its high pH (>8), the presence of THM’s, taste, and the presence of fine particles from the river. The Great Pee Dee River varies a lot from low water levels to flood stage levels, making treating it a full time job. When chlorine is added to water that contains organic compounds (all surface waters), then THM’s are formed. It’s in all surface waters that chlorinate. TriHaloMethanes(THM’s) are carcinogens.
The ground water wells provide totally different water quality. The well water comes from over 300’ deep. It is very old water that is clean except for low pH, iron, and sulfur. These problems are solved at the water treatment plants as long as the equipment is operating properly. Lime is added to raise pH and help to remove the iron. Lime feeders are notorious for stopping up during the night when no one is there. This leads to very low pH water getting into the system and iron too. Low pH water has the potential to leach lead from any lead pipes that may be present in the system.
The EPA and SCDHEC require that the water is chlorinated to prevent water-borne bacterial outbreaks. The only law that is required to be enforced on a routine basis is that bacteria is not present. Potable water is bacteria free water. No other tests are required to determine if water is “potable”.
The other testing requirements are not enforced in a timely manner. Lead and copper are checked annually and, if things are high, you just resample next time. If THM’s are high in some areas, but the averages for the whole service area are good, then it's just fine for the few people that have levels over the drinking water limit. I bet those few people would not appreciate it if they only knew. Guess what? No one is going to tell them. It’s not required by law. Who is to say that the THM drinking water levels set by the EPA are good enough. I think they are set high enough to cover most systems so everyone is in compliance and it's less money and work for the regulators to deal with. The old lead and copper rule has been a catastrophe from the beginning. The new rules coming out are extremely complex. After Flint Michigan, they know it’s important to deal with the lead issue, but the EPA seems to complicate the requirements and make it hard for most systems to understand and carry out correctly.
One last thought... What is the combined effect of a little lead, copper, THM’s, fluoride, chlorine, and perhaps some PFOS/PFOA in your drinking water? Does the drinking water limits take the combined effects into consideration?
IT MIGHT BE TIME TO CONSIDER A WHOLE HOME WATER FILTER!