Is your drinking water safe? Environmental group says the answer may be 'no'
Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register, 7/26/2017
[Bold emphases in discussion, Kinseth, contaminants list is as end of article ]:
Iowans are drinking contaminants in their water that could raise cancer risks and increase problems during pregnancy — even if their tap meets federal standards, a Washington, D.C., environmental group says.
"Just because your tap water gets a passing grade from the government doesn't always mean it's safe," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group.
The group released a national database Wednesday that reviewed 28 million records to provide an in-depth look at contaminants in water coming from nearly 50,000 utilities across the United States.
Iowa's 1,100 utilities reported 89 contaminants to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources over six years. Of those:
Ten pollutants exceed "health guidelines," which are lower, sometimes significantly, than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The contaminants primarily are byproducts from disinfecting water, but also include nitrates, radium and chromium.
Four contaminants exceeded federal safe drinking water standards, based on data from January to March. The pollutants were radium, disinfectant byproducts and arsenic.
In addition to increased risks for cancer and during pregnancy, some contaminants can cause damage to the kidneys, liver and central nervous system.
Mark Moeller, an Iowa DNR water supply supervisor, said utilities that meet federal standards are giving consumers safe water.
The federal government systematically looks "at unregulated contaminants that may have a health risk" to see if added protections are needed to "do even better to make our water safer than it is today," he said.
But Craig Cox, a senior vice president at Environmental Working Group, said the federal government is slow to respond to growing research.
"We think the science has advanced, but the legal limits haven't been re-evaluated the way they should be," said Cox, who is based in Ames and leads the group's work on agriculture and natural resources.
Many of Iowa's contaminants are tied to farming, he said.
For example, 71 Iowa utilities had nitrates levels at 5 milligrams per liter — half the federal standard — but research, including at the University of Iowa, shows long-term exposure at lower nitrate levels is associated with some cancers.
"There are so many systems above 5 parts per million, we really ought to get way more focused and serious about dealing with nitrate pollution from farming operations in Iowa," Cox said.
"And the way to really deal with this issue is to get those levels down" upstream "so we’re not relying on utilities," he said.
Cox said many of the communities close to hitting the federal standard are in rural Iowa and have less financial ability to pay for treatment.
"If we don't get these levels down, the real economic harm will fall on these smaller communities," he said.
Iowa lawmakers have struggled to find money to help farmers increase conservation practices that could accelerate work to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses.
The Environmental Working Group and others also have pushed for government regulations that would force farmers to add some conservation practices, such as buffer strips along waterways.
Iowa farm groups have resisted government oversight, saying each farm is unique and more and more growers are voluntarily adding conservation practices outlined in Iowa's Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
But Cox said farm-related problems don't end with nitrates.
Also exceeding health guidelines: 11 Iowa utilities had atrazine levels above 0.15 parts per billion.
Another 559 communities had total trihalomethanes — or byproducts from disinfecting water with chlorine or other products to kill bacteria and other pathogens — above 0.8 parts per billion.
Atrazine is a herbicide with a federal limit of 3 parts per billion. Cox said atrazine is an endocrine disruptor and could be damaging to pregnant women, infants and children.
The Environmental Protection Agency limits disinfection byproducts to 80 parts per billion.
"It’s a lose-lose situation for utilities," he said. "They have to disinfect; otherwise, people would get sick … but when they disinfect, the chemicals they use" can hurt consumers' health.
Sean McMahon, director of Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, said the state's rich soils are naturally high in nitrogen. And weather can exacerbate losses.
"Much of that will convert to nitrates as soils get warm and moist," he said. "That's about 150 to 400 pounds of organic nitrogen that converts" naturally annually.
"Some of that can be lost in runoff, as well as can farmer-applied nitrogen," said McMahon, adding that farmers are working with cities — including utilities — to reduce upstream losses.
Environmentalists say nitrates have dramatically increased with the use of nitrogen-containing fertilizer.
"Des Moines Water Works is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems with drinking water from farming," Cox said.
Des Moines Water Works unsuccessfully sued drainage districts in three northwest Iowa counties in2015, claiming underground tiles funnel high levels of nitrates into the Raccoon River, a source of drinking water for 500,000 residents.
The utility, which sought federal oversight of drainage districts and, indirectly, farmers, uses a costly nitrate removal system to stay within the federal limit. It plans to spend $15 million to expand its system to meet increasing nitrate levels.
And after exceeding federal total trihalomethanes limits in 2014, Des Moines Water Works told the Iowa DNR it would invest $16 million in new infrastructure to ensure compliance.
Bill Stowe, CEO of Des Moines Water Works, said the water "we're delivering to our customers meets and exceeds public health standards."
Still, he said, many groups question whether drinking water standards are stringent enough, and the utility supports that discussion.
For example, the utility is testing for cyanotoxins that can result from toxic blue-green algal blooms that emerge in warm, calm nutrient-rich water.
"We're finding cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae, in both rivers" — the Raccoon and Des Moines — used to provide central Iowa's drinking water, Stowe said.
"That's above and beyond anything we're required to do," he said. EPA has no standards for it, but has established guidelines.
The bacteria can make consumers sick. Algal blooms on Lake Erie forced Toledo, Ohio, to stop using its drinking water for several days in 2014.
"There's a lot of attention put on treatment on the water utility, on what we're doing," Stowe said. "But if even a fraction were put on conservation practices upstream to keep it from getting into the watersheds, we'd be a lot better off."
Iowa leaders questioned whether the group's health guidelines have enough scientific backing to raise health concerns.
The Environmental Working Group leaned on the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to set its health guidelines, as well as research at the National Cancer Institute and other research groups.
The group said more federal standards are needed to protect public health, adding that EPA hasn't added "a new contaminant to the list of regulated drinking water pollutants in more than 20 years."
"This inexcusable failure of the federal government’s responsibility to protect public health means there are no legal limits for the more than 160 unregulated contaminants the tests detected in the nation’s tap water," the Environmental Working Group statement says.
Peter Weyer, interim director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, said much of the research around water contaminants is ongoing.
For example, he and other researchers are looking at the impact of long-term exposure to low-level of nitrates and have found an association between nitrates and some cancers in women.
But, he said, "the research continues. We're constantly looking at it, asking 'what's going, is it nitrates or something else?' We're trying to figure that out."
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Contaminants in Iowa water
Here are the contaminants in Iowa water that the Environmental Working Group says exceed health or federal guidelines, along with the associated health concerns.
Exceeded health and federal guidelines*
Total trihalomethanes
Cancer-causing contaminants that form during water treatment with chlorine and other disinfectants.
Some human epidemiological studies also reported an association between disinfection byproducts and an increased risk of problems during pregnancy, including spontaneous miscarriage, cardiovascular defects, neural tube defects and low birth weight.
Health guideline: 0.8 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: 80 parts per billion
Radium (-226 & -228)
A radioactive element that causes bone cancer and other cancers. It can occur naturally in groundwater, and oil and gas extraction activities such as hydraulic fracturing can elevate concentrations.
Health guideline: 0.05 picocuries per liter of radium-226 and 0.02 picocuries per liter of radium-228; the concentrations are lower than the detection limit for most water tests.
Federal drinking water standard: 5 picocuries per liter of combined radium.
Exceeded federal guidelines in the first quarter
In addition to trihalomethanes and radium:
Haloacetic acids
Form when disinfectants such as chlorine are added to tap water. Are harmful during pregnancy and may increase the risk of cancer. A group of five haloacetic acids are regulated through federal standards.
Health guideline: Goals set for individual acids
Federal drinking water standard: 60 parts per billion
Arsenic
A naturally occurring mineral that can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, as well as harm to the skin and lungs.
Health guideline: 4 parts per trillion
Federal drinking water standard: 10 parts per billion (it was lowered from 50 parts per billion in 2001)
Exceeded health guidelines*
Chloroform
Formed when chlorine or other disinfectants are used to treat drinking water. Studies show that chloroform can damage the kidneys, liver and central nervous system.
Health guideline: 1 part per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None; it’s part of the federal standard for total trihalomethanes at 80 parts per billion.
Dichloroacetic acid
Formed when chlorine or other disinfectants are used to treat drinking water. May increase the risk of cancer and may cause problems during pregnancy.
Health guideline: 0.7 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None; part of the federal standard for haloacetic acids at 60 parts per billion
Bromodichloromethane
Formed when chlorine or other disinfectants are used to treat drinking water.
May increase the risk of cancer and may cause problems during pregnancy.
Health guideline: 0.4 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None; part of the federal standard for total trihalomethanes at 80 parts per billion.
Dibromochloromethane
A disinfection byproduct that may increase the risk of cancer and may cause problems during pregnancy.
Health guideline: 0.7 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None; part of the federal standard for total trihalomethanes at 80 parts per billion.
Trichloroacetic acid
Formed when chlorine or other disinfectants are used to treat drinking water and may increase the risk of cancer and cause problems during pregnancy.
Health guideline: 0.5 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None; it’s part of the federal standard for haloacetic acids at 60 parts per billion
Chromium (hexavalent)
A cancer-causing chemical made notorious by the film “Erin Brockovich,” which documented the poisoning of drinking water in Hinkley, Calif. It gets into drinking water as pollution from industrial uses but also occurs naturally in mineral deposits and groundwater.
Health guideline: 0.02 parts per billion
Federal drinking water standard: None, but it’s part of the federal standard for total chromium — chromium-6 and mostly harmless chromium-3 — at 100 parts per billion.
Nitrates
Naturally occurring in water and soil but also can come from ag fertilizer runoff, urban runoff and municipal wastewater treatment plants and septic tanks. Excessive nitrate in water can cause oxygen deprivation in infants, called blue baby syndrome, and increase the risk of cancer for adults, especially with long-term exposure at even low levels.
Health guideline: 5 parts per million
Federal drinking water standard: 10 parts per million
Source: Environmental Working Group
*The health guidelines include data over six years; the federal violations were reported January through March.
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