I work for the water company here in south central CT. This is what we were emailed yesterday in response to these findings:

• Discharges from waste water treatment plants into surface water sources in Connecticut used for public water supplies are prohibited.

• Our utility and other utilities in Connecticut rely upon this discharge prohibition in a multi-barrier approach of providing high quality water to our consumers. The discharge prohibition is part of one barrier that we refer to as source water protection.

• Our source water protection effort strives to keep our surface water and ground water sources as clean as possible by a variety of activities including open space land protection, watershed inspections, hazardous spill responses on the road, review of new developments, household hazardous waste collections, education, and support of regulations to keep public water supplies clean.

• RWA completes water testing mandated by the USEPA and CTDPH. Each year, we publish a water quality report that describes the quality of the water we provide to our district.

• We do not test water for compounds described in the American Water Works Association Research Foundation ( AWWARF) report which provided the background information for the series of articles written by the Associated Press. The public water supply utilities participating in the AWWARF report were selected to determine how their surface water sources might be affected by discharges from waste water treatment plants, which are typical sources of the compounds discussed in the report.

• The required list of compounds that we do test for is expanding over time as more information becomes available about the potential health effects of exposure to various compounds.

• Today's advanced technology has allowed scientists to detect more substances -- at lower levels -- than ever before. To date, however, research throughout the world has not demonstrated an impact on human health from pharmaceuticals in drinking water at the trace levels at which they have been found.

• We urge all water consumers to dispose of unused medicines properly. The medicines should not be flushed down the toilet or sink. Consumers should check with local health departments for information about the proper disposal of medications.