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Dear Renter, Employee, Customer or Student/Parent: 1. 2. of Address phone # Landlord, Business Owner/Manager, or School Superintendent Customers wishing for more information should contact Mr./Mrs. the Lower Sac Plaza Water System at: This notification of the public is being done in compliance with the requirements of Section 116450 of the California Health and Safety Code which specifies that school employees, students and parents (if students are minors), tenants of residential rental property, and business employees and customers be informed whenever the water supply of their school, residential rental property, and/or business exceeds state water quality standards. The quality of water served by the Lower sac Plaza Water System does not meet the drinking water standards for nitrate as specified in the California Domestic Water Quality Monitoring Regulations. "The California Department of Health Services (DHS) sets drinking water standards and has determined that nitrate poses an acute health concern at certain levels of exposure. Nitrate is used in fertilizer and is found in sewage and wastes from human and/or farm animals and generally gets into drinking water from those activities. Excessive levels of nitrate in drinking water have caused serious illness and sometimes death in infants under six months of age. The serious illness in infants is caused because nitrate is converted to nitrite in the body. Nitrite interferes with the oxygen carrying capacity of the child's blood. This is an acute disease in that symptoms can develop rapidly in infants. In most cases, health deteriorates over a period of days. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blueness of the skin. Clearly, expert medical advice should be sought immediately if these symptoms occur. Upon determination that the nitrate standards were not being met, the following action was taken by the Lower Sac Plaza Water System: The purpose of this notice is to encourage parents and other responsible parties to provide infants with an alternate source of drinking water, and to encourage pregnant women to do the same. Local and State health authorities are the best source for information concerning alternate sources of drinking water for infants and pregnant women. DHS has set the drinking water standard at 10 part per million (ppm) nitrate as nitrogen (equivalent to the 45 parts per million nitrate as nitrate drinking water standard) to protect against the risk of these adverse effects. DHS has also set a drinking water standard for nitrite at 1 ppm. To allow for the fact that the toxicity of nitrate and nitrite are additive, DHS has also established a standard for the sum of nitrate and nitrite at 10 ppm as nitrogen. Drinking water that meets the DHS standard is associated with little to none of this risk and is considered safe with respect to nitrate." Pregnant women are also at risk of developing the symptoms of methemoglobinemia due to the presence of nitrate in their drinking water. During pregnancy, it is common for methemoglobin levels to increase from the normal range (0.5% to 2.5% of the total hemoglobin) to a maximum of 10% in the 30th week of pregnancy, and then decline to normal levels after delivery. Therefore, pregnant women are particularly susceptible to methemoglobinemia and should be sure that their drinking water does not exceed safe levels of nitrate. There is, however, no clear evidence that nitrate can be transmitted to the fetus from the pregnant woman. PUBLIC NOTIFICATION Nitrate MCL Violation