Our constant goal at the Ellsworth Water Department is to provide you with a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. We want you to understand the efforts we make to continually improve the water treatment process and protect our water resources. We are committed to ensuring the quality of your water.

Our water source is Branch Lake, which is located entirely within the City of Ellsworth in Hancock County, Maine. The surface area of the lake contains about 3000 acres and receives the runoff from a drainage area of 30.6 square miles. The lake is naturally divided by narrows forming a northern basin and a southern basin. The southern basin has a maximum depth of 60 feet as compared to 124 feet in the northern basin. The surface area of the northern basin is about 2000 acres and the southern basin is about 1000 acres. The average time for a complete water change is 2.2 years.

Your water supply and distribution system includes over 23 miles of water main, 1300 services and provides fire protection service through 166 hydrants. In 2005 we produced and delivered over 164 million gallons of water to the distribution system. That is an average of 449,000 gallons per day. The system also maintains 1,500,000 gallons of water in its three standpipes. This storage allows us to meet peak system demands and maintain adequate supply during fire fighting activities. The Department currently injects four chemicals into its water; sodium hypochlorite "“Liquid Chlorine” for disinfecting; hydrofluosilicic acid to prevent tooth decay; caustic soda for ph and corrosion control; 8155 coagulant in order to form larger particles that can’t pass through the filters.

The sources of drinking water include rivers, lakes, ponds and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and radioactive material and can pick up substances resulting from human or animal activity. The Maine Drinking Water Program has completed Source Water Assessment Program of Branch Lake Watershed.

The evaluation did consider geology and hydrology, land uses, water-testing information, and the extent of land ownership or protection by local ordinance to determine how likely our drinking water source is to being contaminated in the future. The SWAP assessment factors indicate that overall susceptibility of the water quality in Branch Lake is low-moderate. This conclusion is based on the general conditions observed, including the density of development, conservation ownership in the watershed, relative absence of activities that handle chemicals in the watershed and historical and recent water quality data. For more information, contact the Drinking Water Program at 287-2070.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact Lawrence Wilson Superintendent at 667-8632.We want our valued customers to be informed about their water utility. If you want to lean more, please call 667-2155 to speak to our staff.