[Pharmwaste] Tennessee waters get drug test

[Tenace, Laurie]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111018/NEWS11/310180031/Tennessee-waters-get-drug-test


Traces of chemicals that may disrupt hormonal and immune systems, including several personal care products, have shown up in the drinking water of six of 11 utilities tested across the state, according to a new report.

Testing of the lake, river and ground water at scores of utility intakes statewide, including in Nashville and nearby counties, disclosed these same substances and a variety of others.

Samples of the drinking water were taken at only a few locations for this study.

What impact, if any, that these small amounts of chemicals - measured in parts per trillion - might have on health and the environment in Tennessee is not known.

The materials included the insect repellent DEET, ibuprofen, caffeine, detergents, an antiseptic in some hand sanitizers, hormones and two chemical compounds found in plastics. One is BPA, which has been controversial in containers for infant formula and baby food.

None rose above any existing hazard index. However, only one of the 17 chemicals has a regulatory limit with health-based standards. That is the herbicide atrazine.

The one-time study was intended to set a baseline of personal care products and pharmaceuticals in the state's waters that could affect fish and amphibians, said Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

"We needed to get an idea of what's out there," she said.

The report, done by the University of Tennessee Center for Environmental Biotechnology, said little is known in the state about the potential for these substances to contaminate water supplies. Surveying for these chemicals could shed light on locations contaminated with others.

The amounts of the substances found in the testing in Tennessee are minute, said Calabrese-Benton, comparing them to less than a drop in an Olympic-sized pool.

But tiny amounts of hormones or endocrine-affecting chemicals can have an effect. Research in the United States and elsewhere has linked some of the materials to changes in the reproductive organs of fish and frogs.

A growing body of data is accumulating since the U.S. Geological Survey reported in 2002 that a variety of chemicals are in waterways, and an Associated Press investigation in 2008 found the substances in some municipal water supplies.

Tennessee has taken "a great first step," said Mae Wu, a chemical engineer and attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Fund.

"The next step is to figure out what are the health impacts of these chemicals so that we can put a number to it to say, 'Oh, actually, 4 parts per billion of this chemical won't affect us or wildlife,' " she said.

Since that is a lengthy process, in the interim it's best to find ways not to use products that aren't needed and not, for instance, to put herbicides on a field before it rains so it washes into waterways, she said.

Soap and water should be the option rather than regular use of Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent found in some hand sanitizers and other products, she said. It showed up in some of the raw water tested in Tennessee.

Bottled water is no answer, she said.

"If you're talking about plasticizers, bottled water makes no sense at all - since they're packaged in plastic bottles," she said.

In East Tennessee, the Bristol-Bluff City Utility and the Newport Utilities Board oddly showed more of a plasticizer, which is found in all types of plastics, in the treated water than the raw water.

"The finished water samples were taken from a sink in the lab, which may have had plastic pipes and fittings," said Calabrese-Benton. "This was not checked at the time."

One type of plasticizer registered lower in the finished water of the Clinton Utilities Board, and another was higher.

The Columbia Water System showed a reduction in both a type of plasticizer called diethyl phthalate and atrazine in the finished water, with caffeine going to zero in the treated water.

Treated water clean
The treated water at the Duck River Utility Commission contained none of the chemicals, while the raw water had shown evidence of five, including two types of plasticizers, atrazine and caffeine.

Randal Braker, general manager, said the utility's state-of-the-art treatment system includes a membrane that catches things smaller than bacteria and most viruses and has eight giant carbon filters - each the size of a house.

He questioned the precision of the amounts detected at the intake, since the technology to read such small amounts is new and developing, but still said he liked the effort.

"It's a good baseline," he said. "I'm happy the state did it. It gives us something to look at in the future."

Utilities confident
Tests at local utilities' intakes, including Metro Nashville Water Services, La Vergne Water System, Smyrna Water System and Gallatin Water Department, each showed one of the 17 substances, while samples showed two at both White House Utility District and Franklin Water Department.

Raw water intakes at Madison Suburban Utility District, Harpeth Valley Utility District and Lebanon Water System tested positive for more than two, including touches of a plasticizer. Utility officials said they are confident in the safety of their treated water.

William Eaton, plant manager for the Madison Suburban Utility District, said people should not be worried by infinitesimal amounts of substances in samples from the Cumberland River, from which his and several other utilities draw their water.

"We're high on the Cumberland River watershed," he said. There's little heavy industry or intensive farming upriver of his intake.

"Relatively speaking, our water supply is a good supply," he said. "These are in very, very minute amounts in raw water. Our process will remove a lot of those if not all."

Travis Aslinger, Harpeth Valley Utility District plant manager, described the same at his operation, saying the amounts are "right on the edge of what they're even able to detect."

Still, the information is beneficial to look for trends and to find out what might be taking place upstream - if industry and wastewater treatment plants, for instance, are functioning as well as they should, officials said.

Many parts of the country have found the same compounds in waterways, which is no surprise since people excrete pharmacueticals they use and caffeinated beverages they drink and send hair care and laundry products down toilets and drains.

What is not removed in treatment at sewage plants is discharged back into waterways or to the ground, where it flows downstream and is cycled again into drinking water by the same or another community.

'Chemical soup'
It's clear that human beings are being exposed to "a myriad of chemicals" through evidence showing more than 120 chemicals in detectable amounts in the bloodstream, said John McFadden, executive director of the Tennessee Environmental Council.

"The water supply is one of those places we're getting exposed to that chemical soup that we as a society have been discharging into our waterways and into the air since the industrial/chemical revolution," he said.

Utilities test for hundreds of chemicals, but there are more than 40,000 in use, including what residents put on lawns and use in homes, he added. What effect they have in combination with each other is a scary mystery.

"They're not even scratching the surface," he said.


Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/





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