The Water Quality Department maintains a highly trained staff and uses state of the art technology to assure that Authority customers receive water that is safe, clean and pure.

Last year, the Authority conducted more than 70,000 tests for roughly 200 contaminants. All tests met or exceeded the most stringent government regulations mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Department of Health.

After extensive research, Water Quality implemented several changes and additions to the Quality Assurance/Quality Control Program of the bacteriology laboratory in order to satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) and the State's Environmental Laboratory Approval Program (ELAP). The Authority's water quality lab is one of only a few water quality labs in New York State to be accredited by both organizations.

The Authority also obtained first time certification to test non-potable water for total and fecal coliform bacteria.

In response to the tragic events of September 11, and the bioterrorism threats that followed, the Authority doubled its sampling throughout its distribution system to rule out the presence of biological agents. No biological agents were detected.

As an additional safety measure, the Authority began using the MicroTox Testing System. This state of the art system allows the Authority to monitor the toxicity levels of its source, distribution and stored water. In the event of an accidental or deliberate chemical contamination of the Authority's water supply, the MicroTox can provide early warning signals and allow for rapid response to the problem.

Water Quality's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) began to be fully utilized to generate all lab data on microscopic organisms, chlorine decay pattern and Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) in the distribution system. The LIMS system has drastically improved the Authority's collection and reporting capabilities.