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Kim ey>>> Horn Page 5 Indian River County Utilities (IRCU) owns and operates a consolidated water system, consisting of two regional Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) with a combined maximum rated capacity of 25.71 MGD. The water system has remote storage and repump facilities that provide treated water to their customers. To enhance and stabilize water quality sent to customers, IRCU implements raw water blend and chemical addition to permeate water to provide customers with a stable finished water quality. This treatment technique is employed to enhance IRCU's ability to protect their distribution system network, as well as their customer's household plumbing. Over time, IRCU has remained proactive towards optimizing operations to enhance quality of finished water provided to their customers. Proactive measures have included design studies, construction of improvements, finished water quality reports, corrosion testing studies and evaluations, flushing measures, and most recently, this Finished Water Quality Audit. Recently, IRCU has received an increase in customer complaints pertaining to household plumbing leaks. Customer complaint locations have been variable throughout the County's water system. IRCU has been responsive to their consumers through listening and responding to customer complaints, making visits to homes, taking water quality samples, ar.d informing their consumers of IRCU's state and federal regulatory compliance as it relates to providing safe and clean drinking water. As part of IRCU's ongoing efforts to be proactive and address customer concerns regarding finished water quality, IRCU retained the services of Kimley-Horn to review and evaluate water quality of its distribution system to confirm compliance with regulatory agencies with respect to the lead and copper testing regimes, confirm treatment protocols are working and determine, what, if any, protocol changes are needed. As part of this investigation, the following elements pertaining to finished water corrosivity are noted: • IRCU has been and remains compliant with the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), including the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), a federal law that intends to protect public health through minimizing lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) levels in drinking water, Primarily by reducing water corrosivity. Figures 10 and 12 within this report clearly illustrate IRCU is in full compliance with lead and copper rule and in similar compliance with several other local utilities located along the Treasure Coast. • IRCU compliance sampling for lead is under the action level (AL), the upcoming trigger level (TL), and the Practical Quantitation Limit (PQL) for lead. • IRCU compliance sampling for copper is well under the AL for copper. • LCR sampling is consistent wish previous years, and although 90th percentile values are slightly higher than previous cycle, finished water is characterized as "non -corrosive" based on regulatory compliance. o IRCU could consider more frequent lead and copper sampling to better understand trends, if any, that may exist. o Additional sampling is recommended to coincide with distribution system flushing to better understand impacts of hydraulic conditions and flushing affects with respect to lead and copper sampling and sample results. • The pending Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR) removes calcium hardness as a water quality parameter (WQP) for corrosion control treatment. o This change will allow IRCU to shift chemical feed to focus on enhanced alkalinity, thereby reducing potential of pH changes in the system. Household plumbing failures are not urcommon and can be caused by a variety of causes, such as; • stray current and/or associated lightning strikes that can cause these 65