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How Should I Respond to Customer Questions About Water Quality?
Author(s) -
Mercer Ken
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
opflow
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1551-8701
pISSN - 0149-8029
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8701.2010.tb03002.x
Subject(s) - water quality , government (linguistics) , business , quality (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , consumer confidence index , water utility , safe drinking water act , environmental planning , water supply , environmental economics , environmental science , marketing , computer science , environmental engineering , economics , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , programming language , biology
This month's question asks how to respond to customers' questions about recent articles in The New York Times regarding contaminated drinking water. The article suggests a response based on reassuring the customer that the primary objective of every water utility is to protect public health by providing high‐quality, safe drinking water and sufficient water for fire fighting. The article discusses how a network of government agencies monitors drinking water quality, describes how federal regulations set maximum contaminant limits, explains how Consumer Confidence Reports provide customers with information on water quality, and suggests that utilities take a proactive approach by communicating with their customers any water quality issues and media reports of health risks. The article also stresses the importance of source water protection as the most effective way to prevent contamination of drinking water.