Environmental Surveillance and Oversight Program (ESOP)
Drinking Water Quality Monitoring
Drinking water quality is evaluated to ensure that radiological constituents have not affected municipal drinking water systems adjacent to the SRS. Eighteen of these systems are groundwater fed and three are surface water fed systems. These systems serve approximately 202,000 customers with nearly 108,000 receiving their water from groundwater sources. ESOP staff collect monthly raw drinking water composite samples from water treatment plants that use the lower portion of the Savannah River as a source, and biannual grab samples from selected municipal and large community drinking water systems within 30-miles of SRS. Samples are analyzed for gross alpha, nonvolatile beta, gamma emitting radionuclides, and tritium.