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OLD WATER TESTS, NEW POLLUTANTS WORRY SCIENTISTS
BIRMINGHAM, AL, November 19, 2000 (Birmingham News) � Many of the
nation�s leaders in drinking water technology say it�s time for even the best
water plants to get tougher.
�We�re still using the same kinds of tests we�ve used since the �60s,� said
Jay Grimes, a University of Southern Mississippi professor who sits on a
panel of microbiologists working to recommend new tests to the EPA.
�They�re not specific. They�re not rapid. They take at least 48 hours. By
then, you�ve either drunk the water or you haven�t.�
And there is not a city in the nation testing or treating for what some
scientists consider the latest emerging pollutants � prescription and
over-the-counter drugs including nicotine, antibiotics, pain relievers and
hormones. In a recent EPA report, researchers write that they have no
doubt the drugs will be found everywhere drugs are used.
In virtually every city in the nation, the coliform bacteria test is the only
way to detect disease carried by human or animal waste. That test has
changed little in a century. If coliform bacteria are present, the logic goes,
human or animal waste probably is present.
In Milwaukee in 1993, more than 100 people died and 403,000 were
sickened when cryptosporidium entered the city water supply. City
officials say their water met every legal disinfection standard when the
outbreak occurred. The intestinal parasite is not killed by chlorine or other
conventional disinfection methods. It must be filtered out of the water.
Chlorine�s job is to kill bacteria and viruses. But it can form something
else, too. When chlorine meets organic materials, it creates minute
amounts of cancer-causing trihalomethanes. As dirt, leaves and other
natural materials, such as nutrients, increase in the water, so do the
carcinogenic byproducts.
Scientists agree there�s not a sewage or water treatment plant in the
nation equipped to remove the drugs and medicines being found in
American waters. More than 50 drugs in various waters lead scientists to
believe that every commonly prescribed drug or over-the-counter
medication could be found in US waters.
The US Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov) is looking at hundreds of water
bodies. The first report is expected out late this year.
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LISLE RESIDENTS� SUIT SAYS PLANT TAINTED WATER
LISLE, IL, November 15, 2000 (Chicago Sun-Times) � Since August, Kitty
Murphy hasn�t let her three children drink the tap water in their Lisle home
or go near their backyard pool. She even urges them to hurry when they
take showers.
Murphy is one of about 40 Lisle residents who filed a federal lawsuit
Tuesday against a nearby metal fabricating plant they allege has
contaminated their drinking water with a toxic chemical.
The lawsuit contends that Lockformer Co. for more than 20 years spilled
an industrial solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, into the ground,
where it reached the aquifer that supplies neighbors� drinking water.
Recent tests turned up TCE in 13 of 17 residential wells in the area south
of the 12-acre plant. Now neighbors worry that years of drinking and
bathing with the water may have endangered their health.
�It�s definitely scary. We�re taking quick showers and trying to hold our
breaths,� said Murphy whose family, like others in the neighborhood, now
drinks only bottled water.
The chemical was routinely spilled into the ground beginning about 1968,
but the company didn�t inform residents of problems even after Lockformer
officials learned in 1992 that soil around the plant was contaminated with
TCE. TCE consumed in high concentrations can cause liver and kidney
damage, heart problems, convulsions and even death, experts say.
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WORKERS URGED TO AVOID CONTAMINATION TALK
NORTH CANTON, OH, November 21, 2000 (Beacon Journal) � A
November 17 letter signed by Mayor Daryl Revoldt and Assistant Law
Director Thomas Treadon said it would be inappropriate for city officials,
employees and council members to talk to reporters. The ban on public
comment came after water department workers said they were visited at
their homes by a television news crew that asked, �Who poisoned the
Dressler Road well field?�
The question refers to year-old allegations that city employees dumped
degreasers, paint thinners, cleaning solutions, and pesticides at the site in
the 1980s.
In September of 1999, investigators from the Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency discovered trichloroethylene (TCE) and
tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in water samples taken from monitor wells at
the field.
EPA (www.epa.org) reports say investigators were told that up to 20
55-gallon drums of liquid waste were disposed in the area between the
monitoring wells and one of the field�s three productions wells.
Discarded substances mentioned in the EPA findings were characterized
as a �substantial threat to public safety.� The chemicals were found within
a few hundred feet of one of the city�s main sources of drinking water, but
the production wells themselves were found to be free of contamination.
Although the investigation into the cause of the contamination continues, a
civil charge is unlikely, Revoldt said.
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