Our Mission
The Board of Directors has established a mission for the Beaches Water Co-operative:
"To provide water service that is dependable, economical, and meets or exceeds health standards for all Co-operative members".
To meet that mission, the Co-operative's business was divided into four areas:
Operation, Administration, Environmental, and Financial.
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Our Plan
The Board of Directors meets at the Beaches Water Co-operative office, generally on the second Thursday evening of the month. The Business Manager receives direction from the Board for the day-to-day operation of the Water Co-operative.
Operation
The Beaches Water Co-operative consists of six pumping stations with a total of eight wells. All six stations are normally in operation supplying water to almost 800 homes in the communities of Long Beach, Calvert Beach, Cherry Lane Farms, Kings Creek II, and Calvert Beach Estates II. Controls cycle the pumping stations on and off as needed. The system has sufficient capacity to add a good number of new homes which allows us to shutdown pumping stations for repairs and maintenance.
Sections of the water system are over 40 years old and require periodic repair. We have had numerous leaks in the system, mostly with black plastic piping. The typical leak is repaired in-place with no interruption of service. We are fixing all minor repairs and additions are performed by our contract plumber.
As part of our operational goals, we seek to minimize interruption of service. When necessary to shutdown a section of the system, we will post signs in the affected areas, a day in advance.
Emergency signs will be posted as soon as possible in the event of an emergency repair.
Future plans also call for additional isolation valves which will allow us to shutdown smaller sections of the community without affecting the entire system.
Beaches Water Co-operative is responsible for the water service up-to and including the corporation stop valve which is located at the meter pit or curb box. Whenever possible, we will work with the homeowner to coordinate repairs to their side of the line. In these cases, we will come out and turn the water on and off as needed. The corporation stop valve shall not be operated by anyone other than water company personnel.
Administration
We have improved our bill processing, and with billing handled from our office during the day, most questions are resolved immediately. Issues with the water system can also be quickly evaluated. The Beaches Water Co-operative Rules have been updated to allow the Business Manager to process past due accounts. Water service is interrupted if a past due account is not paid.
Environmental
The water provided to each member is groundwater, pumped from any of our eight deep wells in the system. These large production wells meet current demand standards and are expected to supply adequate amounts of water well into the next century.
Water is treated with gaseous or liquid chlorine within the treatment plant and then stored in a local tank which is pressure fed to the distribution system. Chlorine residuals are tested daily, and water quality is monitored through monthly operational reports and routine inspections administered by the Maryland State Department of the Environment, and by the federal EPA.
Currently, under provisions of the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA), water quality is monitored for over 80 potential contaminants. Accordingly, BWC is operating in full compliance with all water standards under SDWA and enforced by EPA. If we should ever fail to meet these standards, all affected members would be notified immediately. The water system supplies 105,000 gallons of water per day to our members, as well as providing fire protection at any one of our 38 fire hydrant locations.
Financial
The breakdown of the BWC budget for each fiscal year can be viewed in the corresponding Newsletter/CCR
Effective July 1st, 2021
Beaches Water Co-op will no longer accept credit card payments over the telephone. Please use one of the following options to pay by credit card.
- On-line via our website
- Using your on-line customer portal
- Making your payment in the office
Please note all credit card transactions are now subject to a processing fee that is the greater of $1.95 or 3% of the charge amount. However, we are now offering free recurring ACH bank draft auto pay. Please sign up on your customer portal or call the office @ 410-586-8710 to sign up.
(Please be advised that there are companies, including banks that will offer to pay your Beaches Water Co-op bill for you by providing bill pay services through their websites. These companies may charge you extra fees for such services, and BWC cannot control when we may receive payments from these companies, possibly resulting in late payments or even service disruptions due to non-payment.)
