HUNTSVILLE — It may sometimes run brown from the tap, it may sometimes smell like chlorine or taste a bit earthy from an algae bloom in the river or reservoir, but state and federal regulators say Huntsville’s water is safe to drink.

This summer, the City of Huntsville’s public utilities department has published a water quality report required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, performed tests for lead and copper in residential water pipes required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, monitored the city’s water treatment plants to ensure peak-season water usage didn’t trigger mandatory watering restrictions, delivered presentations to the Huntsville City Council about various aspects of the city’s water system, and found and, with council approval, hired a civil engineering consulting firm to perform a $39,000 six-month study of the city’s water system.

And that’s not all. Among other things, the city last year installed systems to reduce the levels of naturally occurring iron and manganese in water coming from a couple of the municipal system of seven 1,000-foor-deep wells, that were drilled 40 or 50 years ago to tap ancient supplies of subterranean water in the Gulf Coast aquifer. This equipment might help clear up some of that brown water coming from iron deposits in the aquifer, especially at homes in the southwestern and western sections of the city served by the Spring Lake wells.

A quarter of Huntsville’s water comes from these wells and the rest, 75 percent, is surface water from the Trinity River. TCEQ requires all water systems to test their treated water and report annually on the levels of contaminants present in drinking water. The City of Huntsville makes this report available to the public  at http://www.huntsvilletx.gov

Carol Reed, director of Public Utilities, and Jason Pierce, Water Services superintendent, said that with the exception of a few retired engineers or other professionals, they don’t get many calls from the public about the technically worded water quality report.

“I wish there was some way to simplify it. I wish it was an easier read,” Pierce said. “But I don’t know how to do that and get all the data in.”

The report lists the regulated and some unregulated contaminants that show up in water sampling in measurable amounts, some in concentrations as small as parts per billion or micrograms per liter. But what is easy to understand at first glance at the report is the federal warning that all drinking water may contain contaminants. Some occur naturally, such as radioactive compounds like radium; some are chemicals washed into the water source through stormwater runoff, like atrazine and simazine from herbicides used in farming; some are metals like copper and lead that come from household plumbing. And others, like trihalomethanes, are the byproduct of the disinfection chemicals, like chlorine, used to kill harmful bacteria and parasites.

What Reed would like the public to know that even though some toxic compounds show up in the report, the report also shows that these compounds are diluted to the point that regulatory agencies don’t consider them a danger to public health.

“Everything is relative,” Reed said. “Our main concern as the provider of water is public safety.”

The report says samples of Huntsville’s drinking water showed no measurable levels of total or fecal coliform. Total coliform is a measure of the presence of microbes in the water; fecal coliform are microbes from human waste.

The chart shows levels of organics, inorganics and disinfection byproducts from samples taken at the Huntsville Regional Water Plant, operated by the Trinity River Authority, and Huntsville’s two municipal treatment plants, where untreated surface water and well water are blended for distribution.

 Water at both plants in 2009 tested well below the maximum contaminant load, the regulatory cap set by EPA, for inorganic compounds in measurable levels: barium, nitrates and radioactive compounds. The sources of these compounds are oil drilling, metal refineries, septic tanks, and herbicide use and some are occur naturally. The presences of organic compounds, from sources like herbicide use, are also below the maximum allowed by federal law at all treatment plants. Disinfection byproducts such as trihalomethanes are at levels 30 percent or less of the maximum allowed at the Huntsville Regional Water Treatment Plant. The levels of disinfection byproducts in blended well-surface water was similar. The level of disinfectant, chloramines, in the water ranged from was .6 to 3.1 milligrams per liter in 2009. The regulatory limit is 4 milligrams per liter.

Water is also tested for clarity. Water that is clouded with suspended particles, usually soil from runoff, is called turbid. High levels of turbidity, while not toxic in itself, interfere with disinfection and allows for growth of microbes and disease-causing organisms. Huntsville’s blended water system met turbidity limits in 2009, according to the report.

Huntsville’s tests for the presence of copper and lead in the water from pipes of 30 residences constructed in the 1980s, required by TCEQ,  were well within regulatory standards. The City of Huntsville is required to perform the tests; homeowners participate voluntarily. Huntsville’s tests have been consistently below limits. In 1995, the city qualified for a reduced monitoring schedule of every three years. Lead and copper monitoring will be conducted next in 2013.

Reed and Pierce caution residents to make sure water purifiers and filtration systems are kept clean and replaced according to manufacturer’s directions. Otherwise, they can become a hazard, defeating the purpose for which they were purchased. When they do get questions from the public about the water quality report, they direct them to “user-friendly” sites hosted by TCEQ and EPA.

The city doesn’t recommend specific filtration systems to those who think they need additional treatment of their drinking water, but Reed says she understands why some buy water purifiers and filtration systems.

“There is no water (source) that can’t be improved - even if it’s only for better aesthetics like taste and color,” she said.

Aesthetic issues, often caused by the natural features of the aquifer or the river, water are harmless to consumer health. Mitigating these issues are often difficult and expensive, to mitigate, and ratepayers would foot the bill.

The question is, Reed said, “At what point does it become cost prohibitive to drink a glass of water?”