The City of Loveland’s Water Utility has served customers for decades, proudly bringing water “from snowy caps to Loveland taps.” When the Lead and Copper Rule went into effect in the early 1990s, it was labor-intensive to find a pool of people in the correct tier to complete the sampling. Ruth Hecker, Loveland’s Water Quality Supervisor, has been working at the utility since before that original rule went into effect. She and Sandy Mauer, one of their Water Quality Scientists, have seen its changes and effects through the decades.
After consistent good results for their annual sampling of 60 homes, Loveland was moved to a 3 year sampling schedule across 30 homes instead. Despite the lowered numbers, the program continued to be a challenge for the utility, taking time away from their areas of expertise as they handled logistics of sending kits and communicating with recipients. An influx in new residents of Loveland in recent years has brought with it more questions from the population, and increased difficulty in getting residents to complete the testing kits.
120Water took over managing the sampling program, ensuring that getting those 30 sample kits is a no-brainer for Sandy and Ruth so that they can focus on other important water quality issues. 120Water sends Loveland-branded kits directly to residents alongside clear instructions for filling the bottle and returning it to the lab.
In addition, the 120Water services team assists with outreach, calling residents to follow up and make sure the tests are sent back correctly and in a timely manner as well as answering customer questions. Sending kits and handling followup has taken a huge lift off Sandy and Ruth’s shoulders, freeing up hours of their time and making this LCR compliance requirement as smooth and straightforward as possible.
LCR is hard, and it’s getting harder. Proposed revisions include new requirements such as mandating that utilities create Lead Service Line Inventories, as well as testing in schools. Ruth and Sandy know that if these changes go through, they’ll have new logistical challenges on their plate. Luckily, they know they can leverage 120Water beyond the existing kit sampling program to tackle many of these challenges.
120Water’s Lead Service Line Probability Finder could be of huge use as Loveland creates and updates their inventory. In addition, if outreach were ever needed, having all their customer data loaded into the software and working with 120Water’s services team to automate that process would make communication seamless.
120Water™ handles all logistics for scheduled LCR sampling kits
120Water™’s services team communicates with customers via phone
With LCR changes approaching, other components of the solution such as the LSL Probability Finder will ensure Loveland stays compliant.
The City of Loveland used 120Water to handle all logistics for LCR sampling kits & customer communication. The dedicated services team alongside kits and software took the guesswork out of LCR requirements, and the team met all testing standards through the automated program.
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