Utilities

Annual Water Reports

Each year, the Oneida Water Utility provides an Annual Water Quality Report to offer a snapshot of Oneida’s drinking water quality and insight on how the Utility works to stay in compliance with drinking water standards.  The Oneida Water Utility is part of the Oneida Division of Public Works.  The same team who provides you clean, safe drinking water also works with the Oneida Wastewater Facility to treat wastewater so that it is environmentally safe to return to the ecosystem.  This service is provided to Oneida Nation’s citizens and utility customers through routine testing, maintenance, environmental advocacy and continuous education.

 WHERE DOES OUR WATER COME FROM

Oneida Utility customers receive their water from 4 different distribution systems, dependent on location. Site 1 Distribution System has 2 wells, each about 500 feet into the ground. This distribution system serves most of the area (please see report for roads and neighborhoods associated with each system). Ridgeland water supply receives their water from 2 wells and serves the areas near Cty Hwy E & EE. Hillside and Sandhill water supplies receive their water from a single well in each of those communities.

The ground water is pushed up to a pump house where it is treated with chlorine.  The chlorine disinfects the water from various viruses and bacteria that may be present – this protects against microbial contamination and keeps the drinking water clear.  Chlorine levels are monitored daily and tested weekly to ensure healthy treatment of the water.

HEALTH INFORMATION

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

DETECTED CONTAMINANTS

Your water was tested for many contaminants last year. Most water monitoring testing occurs every three (3) years, except for annual reporting for nitrates and trihalomethanes, monthly reporting for total coliform bacteria, and weekly residual chlorine reporting. This report lists only those contaminants which were detected in your water and have enforceable standards assigned to them. Enforceable standards consider safe levels for human consumption for various contaminants; the standards could be in the form of either a Health Advisory Level (HAL) or a Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL), or both. Health Advisory Levels identify at which concentration levels contaminants in drinking water present health risks. Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels are levels that do not present health concerns but may pose aesthetic problems such as objectionable taste, odor or color.

The following tables list contaminants which were detected in your water and that have either a Health Advisory Level (HAL) or a Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL), or both. Test results that were “negative” or showed “no detected levels” of contaminants are not reported in these tables. If the contaminant was not monitored last year, but was detected within the past 5 years, it will appear in the tables on the next page along with the sample date.

PARTICIPATION IN VOLUNTARY EPA STUDY FOR LEAD AND COPPER SERVICE LINE INVENTORY

Oneida Nation Water Utility participated in conducting Community Water System Lead and Copper Service Line Inventory for all four water supply areas. The purpose of this inventory is to identify all lead service lines in a public water system’s service area, both tribally owned, and customer owned. Every service line either owned by the Oneida Nation Utilities public water system or privately owned has been classified as non-lead. The methods used to make this determination are:

1. Construction records and plumbing codes, such as local ordinances, international plumbing codes, permits for replacing lead service lines
2. Water system records, such as capital improvement plans, standard operating procedures, engineering standards
3. Distribution system inspections and records, such as distribution system maps, tap cards, service line repair/replacement records, inspection records, meter installation records
4. Potholing, or visual inspections at the meter pit
5. Inspection during meter repair, line replacement, or main repair

The Oneida Nation Water Utility has no Lead Service Lines, Galvanized requiring replacement or any unknown service lines. For information on your water supply area, please see your area’s Water Quality Report in the link above.

PARTICIPATION IN VOLUNTARY EPA STUDY FOR UNREGULATED CONTAMINANTS (PFAS)

The Oneida Nation Water Utility participated in a voluntary study with the EPA related to PFAS. PFAS are contaminants of emerging concern that are not yet regulated. Unregulated contaminants are those for which EPA has not established drinking water standards. The purpose of unregulated contaminant monitoring is to assist EPA in determining the occurrence of unregulated contaminants in drinking water and whether future regulation is warranted.  Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of human-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1950s. These chemicals are all around us in water bottles, fast food wrappers, toilet paper, rain jackets, the list goes on and on.

There are no detectable levels of PFAS in the drinking water provided by the Oneida Nation Water Utility.

The first samples for PFAS were collected by the EPA as part of the voluntary study in December 2022. Although there are currently no detectable levels of PFAS in the drinking water provided by the Utility, PFAS is all around us, so the Nation will continue monitoring PFAS in Oneida’s drinking water to ensure our water remains safe for consumption.

More information about PFAS can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/pfas. 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

The Oneida Nation Water Utility already provides excellent drinking water and we are always looking towards future developments that can improve the quality of our water. As we have reported in previous annual reports, the Nation continues to work with Indian Health Services to build a new drinking water well located on King Lane.  The construction of this well is mindful of the radium levels naturally occurring in our water supply. Our new well will have a media filter that is highly effective at removing most of the radium and iron when the new well is complete. The Nation will stop using the existing wells that currently serve this drinking water system as the primary water source, although, they may be relied upon as a backup water source as needed. We are looking forward to integrating this new well into our water system to enhance the quality of our drinking water and we will continue to provide updates as the project progresses!