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A reliable supply of clean drinking water is essential for human life, which is why <br />Riverside Public Utilities takes so seriously its responsibility to provide this vital resource <br />to our customers. When a Washington, DC -based group erroneously claims we have <br />substandard water in a poorly -researched report that receives widespread attention, we <br />take that very seriously, as well. <br />Make no mistake — Riverside's water meets all state and federal requirements and is <br />completely safe to drink. Unfortunately, the report from the Environmental Working <br />Group misrepresented untreated groundwater test results as treated drinking water, which <br />badly skewed their results and discredited not just the report, but the group itself. <br />Releasing these false conclusions was irresponsible and misleading, the equivalent of <br />yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. <br />EWG compiled its report using 90,000 data points pulled from years of water quality <br />tests. Of these, about 70,000 data points were from tests on groundwater, not drinking <br />water. That means that over 75 percent of the data EWG used to reach a negative <br />conclusion about our drinking water was completely wrong. EWG either knew or should <br />have known this. Certainly, for a group representing itself as a "team of scientists, <br />engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers," an error of this <br />magnitude is inexcusable. <br />We have pressed hard for EWG to correct their erroneous statements. Within a week of <br />releasing its report, EWG backtracked and agreed to remove the 70,000 groundwater data <br />points from their database. But we remain concerned about the potential damage EWG's <br />unprofessional research may have caused. We reassured our customers that their water is <br />safe to drink by redistributing our water quality report that is mailed annually to all <br />customers. <br />Sadly, all of this could have been averted had EWG checked its facts before releasing a <br />report that reeked of sensationalism. EWG never contacted Riverside Public Utilities <br />before issuing their report. It seems unreasonable that research of this magnitude could <br />occur without determining the source of the water in these tests. <br />"California has always led the nation in drinking water standards," said Celeste Cantu, <br />Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority General Manager and former Executive Director <br />of the California State Water Resources Board. "Because we are so proactive in <br />researching and testing for anything we could possibly find, it assures Riverside, and all <br />of California, that our drinking water is safe to drink and of the very highest quality." <br />Riverside Public Utilities has invested more than $150 million in treatment facilities and <br />spends more than $20 million each year turning groundwater into tap water through <br />testing and treatment. That, more than anything, is worthy of national recognition. <br />-end- <br />