Bristol Water plc supplies drinking water to about 1 million people living in the city of Bristol, parts of Somerset and small areas of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. About three quarters of the Company's water supplies come from reservoirs or from the River Severn via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. The remainder comes from springs, wells and boreholes. The Company has 24 treatment works and distributes water through 6,200 km of pipes and 182 service reservoirs.
Each year water companies are inspected. The 1995 inspection found that the Company's arrangements for sampling, analysis and reporting were generally very good and that treatment processes and progress with improvement programmes were generally satisfactory. Thirteen recommendations for improvements were made to the Company nearly half of which concerned water treatment and distribution practices.
The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. 99.8% of the 53,909 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the 0.2% of tests that did not meet the standards, the most significant were for nitrite and PAH. Others were for iron and pesticides. For nitrite and pesticides, the Company completed appropriate improvement programmes during 1995. The full effect of these improvements should be seen in the 1996 results. For PAH, the Inspectorate has obtained a commitment from the Company to carry out an improvement programme.
The graph above shows the continued good water quality over the past five years. The Company, as it must, plans to improve the quality even further. It has given legally binding commitments to take steps to improve its water mains. PAH and iron arise from old mains and the Company is replacing or repairing these. These improvements will extend beyond December 1996.
If you want more detailed information about quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 0117 9667 666. | 
