Pharmaceuticals passing unaltered from humans into nation's waterways

Pharmaceuticals passing unaltered from humans into nation's waterways

October 2005

U.S. Water News Online

WASHINGTON -- Over the last two years, scientists working on the Potomac River have netted 111 smallmouth bass with bizarre sexual traits. The fish were males but had eggs growing inside their testes.

Researchers found many of these gender-bending bass downstream from sewage treatment plants in water tinged with a chemical called ethinylestradiol -- the active ingredient in birth control pills.

More studies are necessary, biologists say, but evidence is mounting that trace levels of prescription drugs in rivers and streams may be harming fish, tadpoles, frogs, mussels and oysters. The pharmaceuticals are passing unaltered through people's bodies and sewage plants into waterways.

In Georgia and Mississippi, scientists recently discovered that the antidepressant Prozac, in water downstream from sewage plants, can kill tadpoles, stunt the growth of others and befuddle the survivors so they swim in circles and can't flee from predators.

In Pennsylvania, a biologist reported that small amounts of Prozac may cause mussels and clams to discharge their sperm and eggs prematurely, dooming their offspring. And in Texas, a researcher found that the sexual organs of male minnows shrank when they were lowered into a river tainted with birth control drugs.

"We might just be seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the cumulative impact of all this," said Dr. Thomas Burke, associate chairman of health policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

He said concerns about pharmaceutical pollution are likely to become more urgent as a growing human population consumes a multiplying number of medications.

"This is an important area we have to study more," Burke said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working with other federal offices to investigate whether the government should require better sewage filtration systems to remove drugs before water is discharged, according to the agency.

Pharmaceuticals are not regulated as pollutants, and most sewage plants are not designed to break them all down.

One stumbling block to adding better filtration systems is the cost, which could reach $100 million to install advanced technology on each large sewage treatment plant, said Shane Snyder, research manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

"The water industry has no problem spending the public's money to put in new [filter] technology," Snyder said. "But the cost might mean that fewer schools can be built or fewer hospitals."

Vicki Blazer, a fish pathologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, began investigating smallmouth bass in the Potomac River a few years ago when fishermen reported their catch was falling.

She worked with natural resources officials in Maryland and West Virginia, who used devices that fired electric shocks into the Potomac River to stun hundreds of fish in 2003 and 2004.

Blazer said she dissected 184 male bass, and found that 111 of them -- or about 60 percent -- had eggs growing inside their sexual organs. All nine male bass netted downstream from the Hagerstown sewage plant had this sexual abnormality. Fish like these almost never show up in clean rivers, she said.

Blazer is looking into the possibility that the birth control drugs caused the sexual confusion. She also found several other pollutants in the river, including triclosan, a disinfectant used in soap, and trifluralin, a farm pesticide. Any of these chemicals could be disrupting fish hormonal systems, she said.

In an effort to pin down which is causing the mutations, Blazer's colleagues have shocked an additional 100 fish during the last month at five places along the lower Potomac River in Maryland, including downstream from the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant near Washington.

The study is important, Blazer said, because fish with deformed sex organs might not reproduce as well. People also draw drinking water from the Potomac, and the same chemicals that could be harming fish populations might also be affecting humans, she said.

26 Nebraska towns have high levels of uranium in water

26 Nebraska towns have high levels of uranium in water

December 2005

U.S. Water News Online

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. -- As many as 26 cities, towns and villages in the state have drinking water with high levels of uranium, according to Nebraska Health and Human Services.

"It's been a stealth problem, and it's hitting small communities hard," said Anne Pamperl, NHHS radionuclides rule manager.

The Environmental Protection Agency standard for uranium is 30 parts per billion, based on consuming two liters of contaminated water each day.

Higher levels increase the risk of kidney failure and cancer, the EPA said.

It's considered safe to drink contaminated water for one to two years as long as test readings are 60 parts per billion or lower, said NHHS health risk assessor Sue Dempsey. If the concentration is higher than 60, people should drink treated or bottled water, she said.

Deposits from glaciers and volcanic ash make uranium a naturally occurring mineral statewide. Its highest concentrations are found in current or past river valleys where water carried the mineral, Pamperl said.

The state last year identified 43 municipalities that were likely to have uranium issues, and tests revealed that 26 of those cities and towns had elevated levels. Thirteen municipalities repeatedly tested high for uranium and have been ordered to find new water sources or develop a treatment plan.

A filtration technique known as reverse osmosis is considered the most effective way to remove uranium from private and public water supplies.

However, uranium removal can be costly.

McCook, one of the largest cities facing the problem, may have to spend $1 million for water treatment.

Shelton recently replaced its contaminated well with a deeper one that is uranium-free, and Alda plans to do the same next year.

Phillips shut down a contaminated well and is using one uranium-free well to serve its 330 residents.

Grocery and convenience stores and bars and restaurants are using a reverse-osmosis system in Bridgeport, but the city still is studying solutions for private residences.

Colon is considering a plan where it would buy water from Wahoo, and Bruno may buy water from David City. Cambridge, Indianola and Bartley are talking about sharing a new wellfield.

"We're encouraging cooperation," Pamperl said.

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Nation's Drinking Water Contains 140 Different Contaminants with EPA Asleep at the Wheel

Nation's Drinking Water Contains 140 Different Contaminants with EPA Asleep at the Wheel

RELEASE DECEMBER 20, 2005 CONTACT: Environmental Working Group (202) 667-6982More Than 140 Contaminants With no Enforceable Safety Limits Found in the Nation's Drinking Water Utilities Need More Money to Monitor for Contaminants and Protect Source Waters

WASHINGTON - December 20 - The first ever nationwide compilation of tap water testing results from drinking water utilities shows widespread contamination of drinking water with scores of contaminants for which there are no enforceable health standards. Examples include the gasoline additive MTBE, the rocket fuel component perchlorate, and a variety of industrial solvents. The pollution affects more than one hundred million people in 42 states. The findings are derived from the largest compilation of tap water data ever assembled. Over a two-year period, analysts at Environmental Working Group (EWG) gathered tap water testing data from 42 states to produce the most comprehensive picture of tap water quality ever created. States collect water quality testing data from drinking water utilities to fulfill their role as primary enforcement agents, but federal law fails to give EPA authority to do the same. EWG will be making its data available to the EPA, state authorities and water utilities. Individuals can find their own community water system at www.ewg.org/sites/tapwater/yourwater/. The EWG analysis also found almost 100 percent compliance with enforceable health standards on the part of the nation's water utilities, showing a clear commitment to comply with safety standards once they are developed. The problem, however, is EPA's failure to establish enforceable health standards and monitoring requirements for scores of widespread tap water contaminants. "Our analysis clearly demonstrates the need greater for protection of the nation's tap water supplies, and for increased health protections from a number of pollutants that are commonly found but currently unregulated." said Jane Houlihan, Vice President for Science at EWG. "Utilities routinely go beyond what is required to protect consumers from these contaminants, but they need more money for testing, and for protection of vital source waters." The National Tap Water Testing database is available at www.ewg.org/sites/tapwater/. Tap water contaminants that have been found by water utilities and that lack enforceable health standards are available at www.ewg.org/sites/tapwater/national/unregcontams.php/.

Provided by Organic Consumers Association on 12/20/2005

Arsenic: How much is too much?

Arsenic: How much is too much?

Stiff penalties are about to kick in as the EPA begins enforcing tougher guidelines on contaminants in drinking water

Published January 8, 2006 in the Lansing State Journal
By Susan Vela

Across the state, hundreds of schools, cities, businesses, restaurants and mobile home parks are scrambling to make sure their drinking water is considered free of dangerous arsenic levels.

In Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, 13 of these regulated water system owners, including the City of St. Johns and the Village of Fowler, are retiring their wells, buying filtration systems, investing in improvements and considering hook-ups to municipal water systems to avoid costly fines taking effect Jan. 23.

The penalty will be steep - up to $5,000 a day - if they cannot provide drinking water with arsenic levels at or below 10 parts per billion, the standard instituted in 2002.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stiffened the standard from 50 parts per billion because a growing number of studies linked arsenic to cancer.

"It's a serious issue in that it's dealing with a drinking water standard," said Rich Overmyer of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the state's enforcement agency. Plus, "we have a lot of systems that look like they are not going to comply."

The cancer-causing toxin arsenic can be a health hazard even at lower levels, especially for young children, the elderly, unborn babies and the chronically ill.

Regulated water systems that must comply with the federal arsenic standard are community water systems and other public water systems that regularly serve more than 25 of the same people for more than six months a year.

According to the DEQ, 450 of the state's 3,000 regulated systems lag in meeting the federal standard. That means in 2005 their arsenic levels exceeded or hovered around the contaminant threshold of 10 parts per billion.

"I was as close to the borderline as you can be," said Danny Millisor, who manages the Windmill Truck Stop, a Dimondale establishment where every diner gets a clean glass of well water.

Windmill's arsenic levels ranged from 8 parts per billion in September, when the most recent test was taken, to 10 parts per billion last January.

"I never had a customer complain," said Millisor, who's hoping a recent tuneup of his water softeners will keep arsenic levels low.

Federal health officials, though, say water softeners do not remove arsenic.

Still, "there was no need to change (the standard). Arsenic is something that's God-given to the ground," Millisor added.

He's right about arsenic being a natural component of underground rock and soil formations. It leaches into groundwater.

Costly improvements

The DEQ reports about 115 Michigan schools, including Lansing's Gunnisonville Elementary School, own water systems - such as wells - that are likely arsenic exceeders, testing above or near the 2002 standard for arsenic.

According to DEQ records, Oakland County will require the most watching. It has 110 likely arsenic exceeders.

The city of St. Johns is retiring wells that were exceeding the guidelines, improving others and pursuing plans to buy land to drop a new well.

City Manager Dennis LaForest said about $600,000 in improvements were planned. That caused water bills to jump 22 to 30 percent since 2004.

"We fully expect ourselves to be in compliance," St. Johns' public services director Jeffrey Stephens said.

Compliance stressed

Overmyer said the state's main goal is compliance, which is why fines may be delayed for those who demonstrate a commitment to providing cleaner water.

The DEQ gave East Lansing-based Northstar Co-Op Inc., a dairy business registering double the permitted level of arsenic in its well water, the OK to use bottled water.

With the state's permission, students at Gunnisonville Elementary and Clinton County Regional Educational Service Agency, which provides support services to local school districts, also are drinking bottled water. The EPA doesn't consider that a long-term solution.

And Fowler Clerk Rhonda Feldpausch said the state approved the village's request to keep providing its 1,100 municipal water customers well water that registers about 20 parts per billion until May 2008.

A new arsenic and iron filtration system will be installed.

There are no filters or softeners associated with Cindy Kolp's water pipes. She has been drinking Fowler's water for most of her life and doesn't mind waiting until the new filtration system kicks in.

"It's not the water that has changed. It's the guidelines," she said. "People who live around here in their eighties seem to be doing just fine."

Tests determining compliance to the new guidelines began in 2005. Quarterly testing was required of those with significant levels of arsenic.

Those with four consecutive quarters averaging more than the standard could face serious fines after Jan. 23, unless they have an agreement with state officials.

While some doubt the DEQ's ability to enforce the tougher standard, arsenic experts are pleased to see the change.

Epidemiologist Allan Smith, a University of California-Berkeley professor and director of the school's Arsenic Research Program, said one person in 100 had the potential to develop cancer with the old standard.

Now only an adult drinking two liters of water a day registering arsenic levels of 10 parts per billion for 70 years might be in danger of health risks, according to the EPA.

"Better late than never," said Richard Wilson, a Harvard University physics professor and president of the Harvard-based Arsenic Foundation.

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Link: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006601080638