Water Supply and Disinfection NREL currently supplies drinking water to workers and visitors through a single system at the NWTC using hauled water that has already been treated, including disinfection by a public water system registered with the State of Colorado. Water from a public water system registered with the State of Colorado is delivered to the buried 15,000 gallon domestic water storage tank east of the IUF on an as-needed basis. Water flows from the 15,000 gallon long term storage tank into a 2000 gallon tank in the IUF pumphouse. Water is re-chlorinated using an injection system that maintains chlorine levels in the 2000 gallon storage tank within a prescribed range. A consistent chlorine level is maintained by an automatic chlorine monitoring system.
Disinfection is verified by several methods.
Daily inspections are made of the monitoring system's direct read-out display of chlorine concentration in the storage tank. A weekly verification of the chlorine injection system is performed to confirm proper functioning, and as a part of this verification, chlorine levels are tested at the tap in each building. Water samples from the tap are collected monthly for laboratory analysis for bacteria. The weekly verification and all sampling is performed by a State-certified water system operator. Ensuring that the appropriate samples are collected and analyzed in a timely manner is the responsibility of the Site Operations Office.