Amador Water Agency staffers Cris Thompson and Sue Tearpak go over water quality test results at the agency's Waterwise Garden.

Photo by: Kelly Enos

It turned out to be a false alarm. But until water quality inspector Chris McCann could debunk reports of tainted Upcountry drinking water last month, he wasn't taking any chances.

He chased the rumor to multiple locations and test sites, dispatching an Amador Water Agency staffer to a gas station to see if a nearby drill rig had cross-contaminated any of the county's groundwater. It hadn't. Samples were drawn from multiple locations for overnight testing. They came back clean. Up until that point, the samples the agency had been drawing as part of its regular groundwater testing program had been clean as well.

"There's nothing to suggest anything in the public water supply," McCann said before the final samples came back pure, "(but) I don't want to jump to any conclusions."

Call it a practice run.

With everything from anti-anxiety drugs to Ibuprofen being detected in the country's water supply, some are concerned with what, exactly, we are ingesting with each sip.

Last month's false alarm gave the Amador Water Agency a chance to exercise its protocols for testing water quality and responding to concerns about water safety.

"Safe drinking water is not something we take lightly at all," said Sue Tearpak, customer service supervisor for the agency. "We test our water weekly."

The primary source of the county's consumptive water comes from the Mokelumne River and is diverted from the Tiger Creek afterbay or the Lake Tabeaud forebay before being pumped into the treatment plants. The agency supplies the drinking water to all five cities in Amador County, along with the communities along the Highway 88 corridor. That water is monitored continuously at both the treatment plant and in the distribution system to make sure it meets the health requirements of both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Health Services.

AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said water quality standards are becoming stricter as scientists research the health effects of materials that are commonly found in drinking water. He said the media is helping the general population become more aware of quality issues by supplying information to them, such as a recent Associated Press investigation that documented the presence of pharmaceuticals in major portions of the nation's drinking water supplies.

Abercrombie added that the government sets regulations that have a low "acceptable" risk and that everyone is in favor of lowering the risk even further without additional cost to the customers.

"Even though our water is safe to drink, it is not entirely risk free," he said. "Producing risk-free water would be much too expensive to the consumer."

As if to prove that point, the League of Conservation Voters has been pressuring Congress in recent weeks to strengthen the Clean Water Act, which the league says has been stripped of protections, allowing pollutants into the nation's water.

The water agency has a 24-hour phone line for customers who want to request testing of their water and five state-licensed treatment operators. During unforeseen power outages or emergency situations, the agency has systems in place that will alert the public immediately on how they should react.

"When we had a power outage in Ione, we hand delivered notices to each home," Tearpak said. "We have announcements on the radio, the newspaper and even signs posted."

A state-mandated consumer confidence report is distributed each year to water agency customers, informing them how their water stacked up during the months of testing.

"It tells customers about the hardness of their water," said AWA board clerk Cris Thompson. "If any findings exceeded what is normal, the report will explain why and what health issues it poses."

The consumer confidence report will be mailed out June 30 and also be available to read at the agency's Web site. Thompson said she encourages customers to call the agency at 223-3018 for any questions or concerns, or visit www.amadorwa.com.

"It's always an important call, no matter who you are," she said. "You can be secure in your water safety and quality."

Raheem Hosseini contributed to this report.