PUB00055

• Year: 1961
• Title: Public Water Supplies of Colorado
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: Gregg, Meyer, Targy, Moulder
• Description: Summary of statistical data describing the source, treatment and volumes of water used for public supplies by Colorado cities and towns
• Publications - Doc Type: Tech Report

Although the chemical quality of the water in a particular
well normally remains fairly uniform, the chemical quality of the
water in a stream at a particular place may vary significantly
with hydrologic and climatic conditions. Analyses of streamflow
samples taken during May and June generally represent the quality
of the water during high flow: the quality indicated by such analyses
may be better than average. If available, two analyses that
represent the quality during widely varied conditions of stream-
flow were selected. parts 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the annual series
of the U.S. Geological survey water-supply Papers entitled
"chemical Quality of Surface Waters of the United states" contain
additional analyses of water from streams in colorado.

Results of chemical analyses in table 3 are given in ppm
(parts per million). A part per million is a unit weight of a
constituent in a million unit weights of water. It can be con-
verted to grains per U.S~ gallon by dividing by 17.12 or to
equivalents per million by multiplying by the following factors:

Constituent
Calcium (ca). .
Magnesium (Mg). .
Sodium (Na) . . .
potassium (K) .

Factor
0.04990
.08224
.04350
.02558

Constituent
Bicarbonate (HC03). .
carbonate (C03) . .
Sulfate (S04)
Chloride (C~) . .
Fluoride (F).
Nitrate (N03)

.

Factor
0.01639
.03333
.02082
.02820
.05263
.01613

. .

.

Water from municipal supplies is used for drinking and cooking,
for sanitation, for heating and cooling, for industrial processing,
and for irrigating lawns and gardens. The kind and quantity of
the dissolved chemical constituents are important in determining
the suitability of the water for these uses: water that is of good
quali ty for one use may be of poor quality for another. If the
concentrations of the constituents from a municipal supply are
too high, they can adversely affect the health or economy of the
community: however, some constituents in water can be beneficial.

Water for Drinkinq and Cookinq

Water for drinking and cooking should cause no harmful physio-
logical effects on consumers, should be pleasant to the taste, and
should be free of offensive odor and appearance. The U.S. Public
Health Service (1946, p. 371-384) has established standards for
water used by the public on interstate carriers. These standards,
given in part below, have been accepted by the American Water
Works Association and are used by many States as standards for
municipal supplies:

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