Kewanee residents received two mailings last week, one from the city and the other from a company collecting data for the city.

The first mailing was from a survey company looking for information on equipment that some residents have connected to the city water supply.

City Manager Gary Bradley said if residents have swimming pools, in-ground lawn watering systems or other facilities connected to the water supply, they’re required by federal law to have a backflow preventer installed.

Bradley explained that the backflow preventer keeps contaminants like pool chemicals or lawn fertilizer from making their way into the city water system.

The other mailing was to correct a typo in an Internet address for a report on water quality in the city. The report, issued annually, notifies people of any problems with the water supply. There were no problems to report this year, Bradley said.

Bradley said that the Consumer Confidence Report is something the city has been doing since the turn of the century when the rule came out requiring the city to notify customers of any violations.

“The survey results simply tell us whether or not a particular respondent does or doesn’t meet the requirements for having a backflow valve,” Bradley said in an email clarification for this article.

“If they have a pool connected to the system, or an in-ground sprinkler system, or get their water from another source. . . the very limited set of questions identify which houses are required under federal law to have the backflow valve and those that are not.”

Bradley stated those reasons alone are the purpose of the survey.

***This copy was edited to clarify and correct previous statements attributed to the city manager.