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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>The EPA has spent over a Billion dollars cleaning up the Otis Air Force Base. They hired the US Geological Survey to verify what a great job they were doing however there were a few major problems with the study<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>1. The USGS took all of the fish out of the Ashumet pond where one of the plumes of waste from Otis went below, 62% of the fish had cancer<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>2. You can tell what caused the cancer by taking the same type of fish and injecting it with the pollutants found at Otis such as TCE, PCB's etc. and doing a blood cell assay and compare the cell damage to the tumor cells found in the fish with cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>3. The blood cell assay did not match for anything EPA was cleaning up at Otis so the USGS ran the Blood cell assay through a data base and found a match for Cyclophosphamide.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>4. The outcome of the study was that the fish have cancer from an ongoing exposure to a genotoxic substance such as cyclophosphamide and recommended further study.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>5. The EPA canceled the study and told the Authors to call the FDA because cyclophosphamide is a drug (I talked to the Authors)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>6. Cyclophosphamide is the basis for treating Breast, Lung, Colon and Blood cancers and is heavily excreted in the urine, we give a patient 4 grams of the drug, fill them up like a balloon and send them home to their families full of a US EPA hazardous waste U058 where 25% is excreted in the urine in 24 hours, that is 1000 parts per million, enough to kill a child through absorption never mind the carcinogenic, mutanogenenic and teratogenic effects.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>7. The first metabolite of cyclophosphamide (U058) is Acrolein a P-listed hazardous waste (P003)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>8. It is a crime to put the empty container or anything that came in contact with the drug in the trash. This is like taking a drum of PCB's, pouring it down the toilet, slapping a label on the empty drum and telling everyone we solved the problem. Here is the study <a href="http://cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/USGS-Fish-Tumors-Cape-Cod.pdf">http://cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/USGS-Fish-Tumors-Cape-Cod.pdf</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>9 In 2014 the European Commission published a report on Medicines in the environment, this study is 250 pages with 500 references. one of the referenced study's rates the relative dangers of different medicines with Cyclophosphamide being the most dangerous and birth control pills being the least, there were 9 orders of magnitude in the risk factors. In simple terms Chemotherapy drugs are a Billion times more dangerous than birth control pills.</span> <a href="http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Highlighted-EU-study_environment.pdf">http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Highlighted-EU-study_environment.pdf</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>10. We know what causes cancer, there is a list of known human carcinogens and 10% of the things that are known to cause cancer are drugs that are used to fight cancer.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>11. Cape Cod is not unlike much of the US and the world.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>12. Drugs are chemicals too and some chemicals should not be dumped in to our water especially cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs, this is an interesting article from Dr. Christian Daughton stating the need to stop putting some drugs down our sewer systems. <a href="http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Eco-directed-sustainable-prescribing-by-Christian-Daughton.pdf">http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Eco-directed-sustainable-prescribing-by-Christian-Daughton.pdf</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>13. Much more information can be found at <a href="http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org">www.cytotoxicsafety.org</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks for reading my rant for today.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us [mailto:pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Ed Gottlieb<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 9, 2016 9:32 AM<br><b>To:</b> 'pharmwaste@lists.dep.state.fl.us'<br><b>Subject:</b> [Pharmwaste] Contaminated Drinking Water on Cape Cod<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Cape Cod has a long history of ground and drinking water contamination issues. <br>To prevent salt water intrusion into the sand aquifer, wastewater is typically injected rather than discharged.<br><br>Otis Air Base is a superfund site. There are ten separate pollution plumes that are undergoing extraction and treatment, with a combined pump rate of 10.7 MGD. <br><a href="http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0100960" target="_blank">http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0100960</a><br>The use of phosphate detergents over a limited number of years now shows up as an uneven ring, spreading with the flow of groundwater. Another plume is TCE, which was used to clean fighter planes for many years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'><br>Another drinking water problem on the Cape stemmed from the use of concrete water pipes that were reinforced with asbestos fibers. At some point it was realized that asbestos fibers in drinking water posed a health risk. To abate the asbestos, the pipes were coated with vinyl. Ever since, the TCE that carried the vinyl has been leaching into the drinking water. <a href="http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dep/water/drinking/alpha/i-thru-z/vlac1982.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dep/water/drinking/alpha/i-thru-z/vlac1982.pdf</a><br><br>WARNING: Rant below!<br><br>It seems to me that technological fixes to technological problems often turn out to cause problems of their own, sometimes worse than the original. A recent example is "BPA free" plastics. <br><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe" target="_blank">http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe</a><br>And, what do we know of about the health effects of the new generation of fire retardant chemicals?<br> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Ed Gottlieb<br>Chair, Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility<br>525 3</span><sup><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>rd</span></sup><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'> Street<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Ithaca, NY 14850<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>(607) 273-8381<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>fax: (607) 273-8433<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div><div><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div><div id=divRpF743189><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'> <a href="mailto:pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us">pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us</a> [pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us] on behalf of Tenace, Laurie [Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us]<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 09, 2016 8:08 AM<br><b>To:</b> 'pharmwaste@lists.dep.state.fl.us'<br><b>Subject:</b> FW: [Pharmwaste] Septic Systems Contaminate Drinking Water Wells on Cape Cod article</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Please note this email did not originate with me. I know some people are having problems posting to the list serve. I am working on a fix but for the meantime, if you try to post something unsuccessfully, please forward it to me and I’ll post it for you.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Please also realize that the list serve is just a small part of my job and sometimes the list serve has to wait. If I am out of the office, no one else is responding to it for me. </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Still, we’re lucky to have this great way to communicate about these issues –</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Thanks,</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Laurie</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'> John Anderson [<a href="mailto:JcAnderson27@outlook.com" target="_blank">mailto:JcAnderson27@outlook.com</a>] <br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, February 01, 2016 11:40 AM<br><b>To:</b> 'Tenace, Laurie'; 'pharmwaste@lists.dep.state.fl.us'<br><b>Subject:</b> RE: [Pharmwaste] Septic Systems Contaminate Drinking Water Wells on Cape Cod article</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Laurie, </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Great post! </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>It is terrific to hear about anomalies on Cape Cod reverberating from the West Coast and Seattle! </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>A couple of points not mentioned: </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'>·</span><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Cape Cod is essentially a giant sand bar with ground water. It stays fixed in its location thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers and battles fought by each town. </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'>·</span><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>The aquifer is very high, therefore on Cape Cod, Groundwater = Surface Water</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'>·</span><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Similar concerns exist for the islands Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Jamestown in harbor of Newport RI </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'>·</span><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Sadly in some areas on Cape Cod, where there actually is town sewage, the towns often inject into the ground. (I understand there may be some pre-treatment, but pre-treatment for what?) </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>One evening in Cambridge, MA at an event sponsored by MIT, where Pharma-Cycle was one of the featured companies presenting, one serial entrepreneur out of MIT lingered by our table. The man was obviously thinking about some things he usually did not focus upon ion life. In chatting with him I mentioned my septic in Boxford, MA was on the backyard behind my lawn and the well-head was on the front lawn. Additionally my well in Boxford is 300 feet deep with a lot of solid New England ledge in between the two systems. However, I told him that while shopping for houses I was laughed at as I had wells tested, sometimes with shocking results … even in geologies assumed to be similar to Boxford’s. </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>To my utter amazement, this very precise individual insisted his well at his summer home on either Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard (I cannot recall which) was only 9 feet deep!!! He absolutely insisted 9 feet was the exact depth. I would like to think he was terribly mistaken … but he knew all sorts of other details regarding a broad range of subjects … so maybe that evening he discovered a huge oversight and family health risk! I remember suggesting Poland Springs Water! </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>I am hoping Jim Mullowney, who has brought some resources to bear on these questions and caused studies to be performed on Cape Cod, will follow-up this post with some temperate and thoughtful posts showing the Cancer Fish from Cape Cod, etc. </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks again for this very enlightening post showing some of the issues highlighted on Cape Cod are being heard nationally! </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'>Best Regards! </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'>John Anderson</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="mailto:jcanderson@HUBCFO.com" target="_blank">jcanderson@HUBCFO.com</a></span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'>617-499-6900 Office</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'>617-499-6900 Fax</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#002060'>978-837-0092 Mobile</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'> <a href="mailto:pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us" target="_blank">pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us</a> [<a href="mailto:pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us" target="_blank">mailto:pharmwaste-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Tenace, Laurie<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 29, 2016 9:16 AM<br><b>To:</b> 'pharmwaste@lists.dep.state.fl.us'<br><b>Subject:</b> [Pharmwaste] Septic Systems Contaminate Drinking Water Wells on Cape Cod article</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><a href="http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2016/world/septic-systems-contaminate-drinking-water-wells-on-cape-cod/" target="_blank">http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2016/world/septic-systems-contaminate-drinking-water-wells-on-cape-cod/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Cape Cod, the hooked arm of land that flexes eastward from mainland Massachusetts, is the iconic New England vacation spot. Less glamorously, it is also the perfect laboratory to study the relationship between wastewater and groundwater contamination.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The peninsula, whose population of 215,000 more than doubles during the summer, has tight clusters of septic systems and shallow household drinking water wells. Both are placed, on the same parcel of land, in sand and gravel soils through which water easily flows. Combined, it is a recipe for contamination. That is exactly what researchers at the Silent Spring Institute have found.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>They tested 20 household drinking water wells for 117 organic compounds in an area that uses exclusively septic systems or cesspools, which are backyard means of disposing toilet waste and water that goes down drains. The organic compounds are pharmaceuticals, personal care products, sweeteners, and certain chemicals used to stop fire. In the well water, the researchers detected 27 of the compounds, some of which have been found to interfere with hormonal development and reproduction in fish species. Health guidelines exist for only 10 of the compounds they detected.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The study was published on January 27 online in the journal <em><span style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715312353" target="_blank">Science of the Total Environment</a></span></em>. </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“Septic systems were not designed to remove these contaminants,” Laurel Schaider, a research scientist and lead author of the study, told Circle of Blue. “In dense areas, many people are downstream of someone else’s septic system.” </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>A <a href="http://www.silentspring.org/resource/pharmaceuticals-perfluorosurfactants-and-other-organic-wastewater-compounds-public-drinking" target="_blank">2014 study</a> from Silent Spring found similar contaminants in wells used by public drinking water systems.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Household drinking water wells are particularly vulnerable to <a href="http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2015/world/americas-spreading-septic-threat/" target="_blank">septic system pollution</a>. Well owners, unlike operators of public drinking water systems, are not required to test their water for contaminants. Household wells serve 14 percent of the U.S. population, more than 44 million people.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='background:white'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Finding the Medicine Cabinet in Groundwater</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>There is <a href="http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2015/world/septic-system-pollution-contributes-to-disease-outbreaks/" target="_blank">a well-established connection</a> between septic systems and nitrate and bacterial pollution in drinking water wells. This causes problems. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwat.12121/abstract;jsessionid=9B4AA8F1A20F27E5E8B40D72290077B8.f02t04" target="_blank">Two-thirds of disease outbreaks</a> in the United States due to untreated groundwater in the last four decades were linked to septic systems or a poorly designed well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Schaider and her colleagues, however, were looking for a different type of contaminant on Cape Cod. Pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, and other similar compounds are known as “emerging” contaminants because their health effects are only beginning to be studied and few have federal drinking water standards . </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Schaider was careful to note that the concentrations they detected — none of which exceeded health guidelines — were tiny, in the parts-per-billion range, which is thousands or millions of times lower than a medical dose. Even so, the cumulative, long-term effect of drin king water with low pharmaceutical concentrations, especially for children or pregnant women, is poorly understood.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“There are health concerns about the interaction of different chemicals in the body,” Schaider said.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='background:white'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Remedies</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>What is a town or a homeowner to do? More than eight out of 10 homes on Cape Cod uses a septic system or cesspool and one in five uses a household well.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Gathering more information about well water quality is one recommendation. That information, however, is expensive. Schaider said that analyzing one water sample for the 117 contaminants in her study cost $US 1,800.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“It’s not routine testing that everyone can do,” she said.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The researchers looked for a shortcut that might help homeowners. They analyzed the relationship between different contaminants, to see if the presence of one could indicate the presence of others. Nitrate, which is not removed by traditional septic systems, was a suitable though imperfect match — imperfect because agriculture runoff is also a large source of nitrate pollution. Testing for nitrate is much cheaper, roughly $US 20 per sample.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Other recommendations involve more effort. Local ordinances that require a certain distance between septic systems and household wells could be revised, Schaider said. Or, instead of continuing to build individual wells, new developments could drill a community well to supply many homes. The well would be strategically located away from septic system runoff.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333'>That option, of course, does nothing to address the root cause of the pollution, which is the septic system itself. Some communities on Cape Cod are experimenting with <a href="http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2015/world/americas-septic-system-failures-can-be-fixed/" target="_blank">new treatment techniques</a>, but more will be needed. Roughly one in five U.S. households uses a septic system.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Laurie Tenace<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Environmental Specialist<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Waste Reduction Section<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Florida Department of Environmental Protection<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>2600 Blair Stone Road, MS4555<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Tallahassee, FL 32399<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><a href="mailto:Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us" target="_blank">Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>850.245.8759<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>