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Contaminated drinking water on a U.S. military installation could adversely impact the health ofpersonnel and the mission of the installation. Localized and widespread illness and fatalitiesresulting from contaminated drinking water could also generate a great deal of media attention,nationally and internationally. Confidence in the military's ability to protect soldiers, theirfamilies, and installation personnel from a terrorist attack would be greatly decreased. Since September 11, 2001, Army installationstaffs responsible for the safety of community drinking water systems have been searching forguidance on how to develop better drinking water monitoring systems to detect an intentionalcontamination event. Currently there is no sensory capability to guard against all possible casesof intentional contamination. Until that capability is developed and validated, Army utilitieshave been advised to focus on more conventional water quality indicators to gage water quality.Advised actions to take have included increasing measurements both in number of locations andfrequency for disinfectant residual concentration, pH, turbidity, and coliform bacteria. Thepresence of many drinking water contaminants affects drinking water aesthetics and can bedetected by consumers. In some cases, the consumer's sense of smell rivals the capability ofhighly expensive analytical instruments by detecting some chemicals at parts per trillion levels.From a health surveillance standpoint, drinking water consumers are the untapped surveillanceresource. They can act as "real-time" water quality and safety sensors that provide feedback.These water quality monitors are located at every point in the distribution system at all times.Unfortunately, consumer complaints were not being effectively handled or resolved at mostArmy installations. The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine(USACHPPM) recently provided additional guidance to Army staff outlining a low cost,systematic procedure to improve drinking water surveillance through an effective consumercomplaint response and tracking system. The USACHPPM Technical Guide 284, DrinkingWater Consumer Complaints: Indicators from Distribution System Sentinels, May 2003, can beobtained from the CHPPM web page http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/17/2004 Number of Pages: 1File Size: 1 file , 160 KB