Water Information:
  Water Facts
Disaster Preparedness
Water Security
Water Quality
  About Your Water Supply
  A Letter to Our Customers
  Learning About Drinking Water
  How to Read the Table
  Water Source Analysis

 

 

About Your Water Supply

Desert Water Agency serves a 325-square-mile area including all of Palm Springs, some adjacent County areas and parts of Cathedral City.

The Whitewater River Subbasin provides groundwater in a continuous process. Mountain streams also bring water by way of Chino Creek, Snow Creek and Falls Creek.

Natural groundwater replenishment is supplemented with Colorado River water imported through the Colorado River Aqueduct to our recharge basins located near Windy Point.

Desert Water Agency is a public non-profit agency. A five-member board of directors elected by the public sets policy and represents the customer taxpayer.

All data presented in this table is from the most recent monitoring done in compliance with regulations and unless otherwise noted, was obtained between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006.

Analyses have been completed for some 150 regulated and unregulated contaminants. In some cases, the Department of Health Services has allowed Desert Water Agency to monitor for certain contaminants less than once a year because the Agency's system is not vulnerable to these contaminants or because they were not expected to vary significantly from year to year.

Desert Water Agency obtains only five percent of its drinking water supply from mountain stream sources. The remaining 95 percent is groundwater pumped from deep wells.

An assessment of the drinking water sources for Desert Water Agency was updated in April of 2006. The sources are considered vulnerable to activities normally associated with residential, commercial and industrial development; however, all water provided by Desert Water Agency meets or exceeds all guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Health Services.