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Show Water Systems 'Sub-Standard' On State's List Two local businesses were named by the Utah Department of Health on a list of systems that have chronically neglected to meet water quality standards. Panguitch Lake Resort and Foster's Stakehouse and Market were among the 40 names included on the department's list of systems throughout Utah which have "chronically neglected to meet water quality standards." Owners of both businesses said that the health department's report is misleading and unfactual and causes embarassment and loss of business. Leda Mae Foster at Foster's Steakhouse and Market said that the health department's news release implies that the water is unsuitable to drink and thus is "dishonest and misleading, when in reality the department is simply claiming that operators of the water systems have only failed to send in the required samples." She said they have a recent report from the department indicating that their water meets health department standards. Doug D. and Mary Burningham, owners of Panguitch Lake Resort, both said they have sent in the required samples and have reports from the health department to prove it. "Every 90 days, we've released the names of systems which have failed to nofify their customers that the system did not meet necessary water quality standards in the previous three months," said Gayle Smith, Director of the Utah Department of Health's Bureau of Public Water Supplies. "Utah law requires that when water systems do not meet standards, stan-dards, the customers must be notified," Smith added. "This is a list of systems that have, for some reason, chosen not to inform their water users of violations and have not resolved problems causing the violations. We are giving the chronically violating systems priority status for enforcement en-forcement action," said Smith. Enforcement action may take the form of a rating drop that would change a system's status to "non-approved" "non-approved" which may affect funding fun-ding for building, legal action and or financial penalties. The Department of Health urges users of water from these systems to contact the management of the systems and encourage the managers to correct system problems as soon as possible. The U.S. Congress has decided to include public notice of water systems deficiencies in the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The purpose of public notification is to have the public aware of system problems if and when the system fails to notify its users. In a 1984 agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Utah Department of Health agreed to release the information in-formation to the public every 90 days. |