Abbeville reports on water

By Rachel Cherry

The City of Abbeville recently mailed out water quality reports to the residents.
The document details how water samples are routinely collected and analyzed for purity.
Since the drinking water comes from the Chicot Aquifer and travels a great distance through a natural underground flow system, there is the possibility to see anomalies or other naturally-occurring minerals in the samples.
Contaminants that may be present in the source water are microbial contaminants such as viruses and bacteria, inorganic contaminants such as salts and metals, pesticides and herbicides, and radioactive contaminants which can be naturally occurring or from oil and gas production.
It was determined that during the period of January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 there were no violations to drinking water as regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Good and Drug Administration (FDA).
The city started working on the water wells, a $4 million dollar project this spring and engineers have signed off on much of the project.
The work on the water wells will enable the city to produce the quality and amount of water needed for the community.
The city utilizes a Source Water Assessment Plan (SWAP) that determines the water supply susceptibility to contamination by identified potential sources. According to SWAP, the water system had a susceptibility rating of ‘high’. For more information about SWAP, the water well construction, refurbish projects or for general information on the water system contact the City of Abbeville at (337) 898-4246.