[Pharmwaste] 129 things EPA wants to test your water for

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080713/NEWS01/8
07130333/1006/news01

July 13, 2008


129 things EPA wants to test your water for

Proposed tests may make your tap safer but pricier

BY JIM WAYMER
FLORIDA TODAY 

While reports mailed to residents this month assure them that drinking
water is safe, there are at least 129 potentially harmful chemicals and
microbes not mentioned -- or even tested for yet.

Are cancer-causing algae toxins fouling drinking water from the St.
Johns River?

How about Naegleria fowleri, dubbed "the brain-eating ameba"? Although
extremely rare, it's almost always fatal.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering adding such
contaminants to its regulatory list to make tap water safer.

"I get the reports and they always say that we're doing well, but my
thought is that there's still stuff going through there," said Steve
White of Merritt Island. "It's always in the back of my mind that I'm
probably getting a little bit more than I know I'm getting."

The 129 contaminants being considered for testing include
pharmaceuticals, microbes and toxins that can invade wells, rivers and
lakes.

These are chemicals used in cosmetics, perfumes, automotive coolants and
pesticides. The list also covers explosives such as TNT and rocket
propellants that fuel the space shuttle such as perchlorate.

All the additional water testing, some of which kicks in as soon as
January, could mean safer water, but also steeper water bills.

"Regulations will continue to increase," said Bob Klaproth, Melbourne's
public works and utility director. "And we'll continue to spend more
money to treat it and it will continue to cost more at the tap."

Melbourne, for example, already tests for one of the EPA's candidate
contaminants, microcystin-LR, an algae toxin associated with higher
liver cancer risk. At $3,800 per year, it's the city's most expensive
test.

The EPA currently regulates 90 drinking water contaminants. Federal law
requires the agency to identify up to 30 new contaminants every five
years for monitoring and possible regulation.

The EPA evaluated more than 7,500 chemicals and microbes before
whittling two new lists of potential contaminants down to those that
pose the greatest health risks.

Among the chemicals being considered for testing: byproducts of
disinfecting that tend to plague smaller, private water systems,
biological toxins from algae common in the St. Johns, pathogens from the
human gut, and insecticides with tongue-twister names such as
alpha-Hexachlorocyclohexane.

Or try this one: Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine, otherwise
known as RDX, a common military explosive.

"There's some really tricky ones on it," said Van Hoofnagle, an
administrator for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's
drinking water program. "They're also getting into chemicals that are
very hard to detect. I can't even pronounce 50 of them."

The 11 microbes on the list, such as Hepatitus A, come and go in water,
making them difficult to monitor, Hoofnagle said.

And new EPA water regulations also tend to overlook the potential cost
to smaller suppliers, he said.

The round of new tests for 25 possible contaminants starting in January
will cost Cocoa $5,600, said Troy Howell, superintendent of the Dyal
water plant, west of Cocoa.

"This is the first time, I believe, we've tested for any of these," he
said. And chances are slim that they'll be found. It's unlikely that
some on the list, such as explosives from fireworks, are seeping into
the city's wells, off State Road 520 in Orange County.

"There shouldn't be any TNT in our water," Howell said.

The other list of 104 candidate contaminants for future drinking water
standards won't be final until August of next year. Then the agency
would roll out new regulations for only a handful of the new
contaminants at a time, agency officials said.

The list includes Methyl tert-butyl ether, better known as MTBE, an
octane booster in gasoline. The federal government required oil
companies in 1979 to switch from lead to MTBE to prevent air pollution.
Now the stuff leaks from underground storage tanks, polluting
groundwater instead.

"There's some evidence of that in the state," said the DEP's Hoofnagle.

MTBE has been shown to cause cancer in rats at high levels of exposure.
Long-term human effects are uncertain.

"We're looking at the best available science and meaningful opportunity
to protect public health," said Thomas Carpenter of EPA's office of
groundwater and drinking water in Washington, D.C.

Another candidate for future regulation, microcystin-LR, already raised
concerns in Brevard in recent years. It comes from the frequent
summertime blue-green algae blooms in the St. Johns River, the region's
main future drinking water supply.

There hasn't been a bloom in Lake Washington so far this summer,
Melbourne officials said. But this month is peak time for such
blue-green algae blooms, especially given recent rain and heat.

The algae feed off sewage and get worse when rivers are more stagnant.
That could happen more often as cities tap more water from the St.
Johns, said John Burns, an environmental consultant in Newberry.

"We need to be real careful in how much we take out," Burns said. "We
could increase frequency and duration of these blooms."

Melbourne decided to test its water for microcystin in 2002 after a
study by St. Johns River Water Management District the previous year
found the toxin present in Lake Washington, the city's main water
source.

Several samples showed levels of microcystin above the World Health
Organization guideline of 1 part per billion.

"I don't know what to worry about and what not to worry about," White
said. "I want to trust the local government, and generally I do. I think
everybody acts in good faith."

Contact Waymer at 242-3663 or jwaymer at floridatoday.com.

Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032