UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (OPP) recently issued its annual Drinking Water Quality Report for 2021. OPP routinely monitors the University’s drinking water, and the full report can be viewed on the department’s website.
Drinking water for the University Park campus is produced at the University Water Treatment Plant, where the water undergoes microfiltration, granular activated carbon adsorption, and nanofiltration treatment to produce drinking water of the highest quality for the campus. Water sampling required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is conducted at the Water Treatment Plant and throughout the water distribution system in the interest of community safety and regulatory compliance.
The Penn State potable water system passed state and federal standards last year with no violations for water quality. However, the University did receive one failure to monitor violation due to instrumentation issues occurring with a third-party contractor laboratory that samples the University’s potable water. During last year’s third-quarter testing window for haloacetic acid and trihalomethane, the lab experienced instrumentation issues that warranted a tier 3 violation for failure to monitor. The fourth-quarter testing window for the same contaminants passed all regulations. The violation was not for the presence of known contaminants, but rather for the contract laboratory failing to analyze the samples for these two contaminants in the allowable timeframe.
Those with questions regarding the annual Drinking Water Quality Report can contact Jim Hosgood, water services supervisor, at 814-863-6187.