This is the first in a series of stories The Times is publishing regarding water. Part one will focus on the quality of tap water that comes into the homes of Fountain Hills residents.

Parts two and three will discuss the irrigation water used for parks and golf courses in the town. There are significant challenges that go with using treated waste water for irrigating large areas of turf.

What happened with the drinking water in Flint, Mich. is likely to cost that city and the State of Michigan significantly in health and treasury for some time to come. Was it preventable? In all probability, yes.

Could it happen here? One is careful not to say never, but John Caulkins, director of Environmental Compliance for EPCOR Water, says probably not.

Caulkins describes differences in the sources of water and delivery systems that make something like lead contamination unlikely for Fountain Hills water customers.

EPCOR Water owns and operates the drinking water system in the community.

Water contamination from lead, copper and other heavy metals comes mostly from infrastructure, the pipes and connections that make up the system, according to Caulkins.

EPCOR does test for lead and copper. The company’s 2014 Water Quality Report for Fountain Hills indicates that 30 samples of tap water were tested for those contaminates.

The report states that the samples came from 30 residences that are representative of the types of houses in the community.

Caulkins said historical data indicates that the 30 samples are adequate to measure such contaminants in the water. EPCOR has 13,700 service connections in the Chaparral District, which is Fountain Hills.

“Initially the number was much higher,” he said.

“The standards showed we were able to reduce the frequency. Sometimes we see an amount we monitor.”

Caulkins said stability is a key system component in maintaining water free of heavy metal contaminants.

He said that Flint is an old system and when the community changed its supply of water last year, the change in water chemistry caused “aggressive leaching” of the lead from pipes.

“I call Arizona a ‘new’ state,” Caulkins said.

“You don’t have the old infrastructure.”

He also said the ground water comes from a “known aquifer” and the surface water supply from the Central Arizona Project remains unchanged.

“Things have not changed so we are not faced with this type of issue,” Caulkins said.

If a water company were making a major change to its water supply as they did in Flint, the state would be able to ask for new testing, Caulkins said.

CAP water, in spite of being in an open canal, is a fairly closed system; there is little if any mixing of water from other sources, according to Caulkins. There are also numerous users of CAP water. If a community discovers an issue it can notify downstream users of the problem, which can then be addressed.

“There is a well-established communications system,” Caulkins added.

Another contaminant that water suppliers must monitor constantly in this area is arsenic. This is naturally occurring and can work its way into the groundwater.

There is a well in Fountain Hills that historically has had arsenic at levels of concern.

Caulkins said a treatment system has been installed at the well head to remove the arsenic.

“An iron-based median has been designed to absorb the arsenic out of the water,” he said.

Hard water

The water in the Southwest naturally has a higher level of “dissolved solids,” the stuff that tastes funny and leaves behind spots.

While not generally a health hazard, hard water can cause expensive problems with infrastructure components.

EPCOR’s water quality report shows that the hardness of the water in Fountain Hills is quite literally off the charts.

The hardness is measured in “grains per gallon” with a level of 10.5 gpg considered “very hard.” The hardness level for water in Fountain Hills stands at 16 gpg.

For a very long time people in the Valley and Arizona have turned to water softeners to mitigate the hardness issue. However, water softening systems create their own problems with water, primarily wastewater treatment, with the amount of sodium they introduce into the water.

Wastewater treatment does not do a good job removing the salt and over time that has created new problems for the people who use the treated effluent for irrigation, such as golf courses and parks.

This series will next look at how local golf courses are working with the Fountain Hills Sanitary District in an effort to mitigate turf issues.