DANGER ON TAP

The Midwest's water is the worst in the U.S. Contaminants pose little-known risks to your family's health

By NEAL LAWRENCE · SENIOR WRITER

A hundred years after Americans first enjoyed the convenience of having water piped into their homes, concerns are being raised about the safety of the nation's water supply. The problem is especially acute here in the Midwest, due to agricultural runoff, which introduces harmful pesticides and other farm chemicals into the lakes and rivers which supply much of our region's municipal water needs.

This isn't another "global warming"- type scare that's eons away. It is a present-day threat which can have serious health consequences. Just ask anyone who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Residents there still recall a contamination problem in 1993 when a microbe called cryptospor-idium infiltrated that city's water system and sickened 400,000 people, as well as killed 100 persons who had weakened immune systems.

Cryptosporidium isn't the only danger that may be lurking in our water. There are other lesser-known pathogens and stray bacteria, and in some places dangerously high levels of mercury. And to cope with lead that leaches into the water supply from old pipes, some cities are now dumping orthophosphate, a powdery chemical, into water supplies. Even the chlorine that is widely used to purify water has hazards of its own: The American Journal of Public Health reported in 1992 that drinking chlorinated water increases the risk of bladder and rectal cancer over long periods of time.

Recognizing these risks to public health, the Environmental Protec-tion Agency will soon be requiring water companies to disclose contaminants in city water supplies, and issuing warnings against eating fish from certain regions.
It is now clear that for more than 25 years, millions of people living in hundreds of Midwest communities have been routinely drinking tap water contaminated with an unhealthy dose of agricultural weed killers, many of which are known carcinogens.

An analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in June 1997 showed that a single glass of Midwest tap water commonly has a mixture of three or more pesticides, and has had for many years. During its third year of testing, the ewg found ten different pesticides and metabolites in a single sample of water taken from a tap in
Williamsburg, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb.

That was the worst case it found in its limited testing. But when the group analyzed 1996 data collected by state agencies across the corn belt, it found that 104 communities, with a total population of 3.3 million people, drank tap water contaminated with five or more toxic weed killers. And, the ewp noted, "this is after a number of water utilities began special treatment to suppress pesticide levels."

Little did we know that pesticides were in our water, our iced tea, our orange juice, our infant formula, or in the jet of water squirting from water fountains at our children's schools and playgrounds.

"[People] had no idea that they were often drinking -- or serving their children -- poisons like atrazine, simazine, cyanazine, metolachlor and alachlor, or various metabolites of these weed killers that can be even more toxic," concludes a study by the EWG.

The reason we didn't know that our water has been contaminated with pesticides all these years is that no one told us.

The blame seems to rest with the multi-billion dollar chemical companies that make these pesticides, who never said a word over decades of contamination.

Even as utilities tighten their monitoring of treated water, and reports of sporadic disease outbreaks subside, a greater problem looms just beneath the surface. In much of the country, underground water mains and connecting pipes are in some cases over 100 years old. Leaks allow contamination in. And lead pipes may carry traces of that toxic element into the home.

Obviously, if you put clean water into dirty pipes, you have dirty water.

While politicians like to assure themselves of re-election by fashioning ill-advised tax reductions, local municipalities are strapped for cash to deal with the massive replacement of worn-out water pipes.

Until the aging u.s. water system is overhauled, it is possible that more and more Americans will buy bottled water instead of turning the tap. Here again, there are problems. The fine print on some bottles indicates it's from "municipal sources". Meaning it's not necessarily any different from what you can get from the tap -- though you pay a lot more. The Food and Drug Administration may require "right-to-know" labeling on bottled water.

Regulations Targeted

EPA Administrator Carol Browner said urban and agricultural runoff accounts for half of the pollution in the nation's lakes and rivers, and waste "from animal feeding operations in particular has been associated with threats to human health and the environment."

The EPA intends to regulate large poultry and other livestock farms, or feedlots, to curb pollution into nearby waterways to the same extent that factories are currently regulated under the Clean Water Act.

The controls would not apply to cattle ranches, but only to feedlots where the livestock are fattened before slaughter. Beef or dairy cattle, hog and poultry farms would be subject to regular inspections, require pollution permits and be required to develop plans limiting release of chemicals, manure and other wastes into waterways, the agency said.

Such pollution has been blamed for excessive nutrients and toxic chemicals getting into lakes and streams, leading to a growing number of fish kills in waterways in many parts of the country.

The flow of large amounts of nutrients from livestock into rivers and streams also has caused oxygen-choking algae blooms in waterways, creating in some cases "dead zones" where fish and other aquatic life no longer can survive.

Mercury Levels High

Meanwhile, still another water-related problem involves fish from more than 1,660 U.S. waterways. This seafood is so contaminated with mercury that it should not be eaten or eaten only in limited amounts, according to federal health warnings. Children and mothers-to-be are at highest risk, not only from fresh fish but from mercury contamination of canned tuna and other foods.

There have been fish advisories from mercury contamination in 37 states. Mercury levels have even been found in supermarket products such as tuna, fish sticks, even instant oatmeal.

Last December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent Congress a report estimating that more than 1.6 million women and children may face serious health risks from mercury-contaminated food.

"The EPA report says that eating just half a can of tuna a day could exceed safe levels for mercury exposure," said ewg analyst Jacqueline Savitz. "The solution is not to stop eating fish, but to minimize the sources of mercury contamination."

Overall, mercury contamination is the worst in the Midwest. Among the findings:

In Indiana and Michigan, high mercury levels are so widespread that statewide advisories against fish consumption are in effect.
Minnesota leads the nation with 693 fish consumption advisories, following by Wisconsin with 389 and Indiana with 116.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests found that 100% of samples of oil-packed canned tuna were contaminated with mercury. Mercury was found in more than 90% of commercial haddock and shrimp, and in 75% of frozen fish sticks.
The Environmental Working Group, in its study, complains that "The EPA defines the nation's mercury problem, but the agency has failed to enact adequate regulations to prevent mercury pollution that results from incineration of medical and municipal waste."

Some Cities Protect Themselves

In recent years, more and more water suppliers have begun to treat their water prior to delivery to the tap in order to suppress pesticide levels.

While water suppliers in small communities have been slower to react, those in larger communities with greater resources have taken several approaches to solving the problems caused by upstream polluters.

Among the activities that water suppliers are engaging in:

Treating tap water to reduce pesticide contamination. Water suppliers in virtually every major Midwestern community -- St. Louis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Missouri, Omaha, Columbus and others -- treat tap water with powdered activated carbon (PAC), a technique which reduces (but does not completely remove) the amount of weed killers found in tap water. This has had immediate public health gains, although it costs the water drinkers in these communities millions of dollars each year.
Upgrading water treatment plants. In response to publicity and citizen concerns, the community of Bowling Green, Ohio, for instance, is upgrading its existing water treatment plant.
The re-engineered facility will have the capability to use granular activated carbon (gac), a pesticide removal technology that functions with over 99% efficiency. Columbus is upgrading an existing plant to expand the capability to use pac to reduce pesticide concentrations.
Testing more frequently, and informing customers of contamination. In 1994, many water suppliers would not test for pesticides even once during the peak contamination period in Spring and Summer. Now, many test daily or weekly.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana the water supplier has set up a special telephone hotline to inform customers of daily atrazine concentrations in their tap water. Other water suppliers, including those in Kansas City, Missouri, have adopted a policy of not allowing atrazine to exceed federal standards for even one day.
According to drinking water industry officials, St. Louis, Missouri spends $7,000 per day in the late Spring and Summer to reduce atrazine levels below 1 part per billion in finished tap water.

Public To Be Informed

As laudable as some of these efforts are, the public remains largely uninformed about water pollution problems in their communities.

Proposed new regulations would require more than 56,000 community water agencies to provide customers with an annual assessment of the quality of their tap water. The reports would have to be included with water bills, except in cases of systems serving fewer than 10,000 customers. In those cases the information could be posted at a central location or put into local newspapers.

Included in the annual report would be:

What lakes, underground aquifers or rivers the water came from.
What contaminants were in the water and whether the amounts exceeded epa health standards.
What health risks were posed by the contamination when federal standards were exceeded.
What violations and enforcement actions had been taken against the water supplier during the year.
The water agency also would have to provide customers information on how they could obtain state reports on how vulnerable their water system might be to contamination.

Alan Roberson, spokesman for the American Water Works Association (AWWA), said member utilities were "generally supportive" of the EPA proposals.

AWWA supported the Safe Drinking Water Act, the 1997 legislation that asked the EPA to establish new right-to-know rules for drinking water.

New Law May Help

As the result of a law passed by Congress in 1996, millions of Americans and hundreds of water suppliers across the Midwestern United States have a new, first line of defense against the agricultural weed killers that have contaminated their tap water for decades.

The 1996 law -- the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) -- closed a gaping loophole in Federal pesticide laws. It requires that safe levels take into account all exposure to pesticides -- including, for the first time, exposure via drinking water -- and that this aggregate exposure must be safe for infants and children. FQPA prohibits the use of a pesticide on food crops if the risk from the pesticide via drinking water (or any other route) exceeds the new, more protective safety benchmark in the Act.
One of the most important implications of FQPA is that it finally fixes responsibility for widespread, long-term herbicide contamination of Midwest tap water squarely where it belongs: on huge, highly profitable pesticide companies like Novartis (formerly Ciba) and Monsanto.

Pesticide companies have sold more than 100 million pounds of these weed killers to farmers every year for decades. They have sold their products with full knowledge that the pesticides will find their way into drinking water.

Until 1996, the regulatory gap for pesticides in water allowed pesticide companies to duck their responsibility for contamination and clean up. Water treatment plants throughout the Midwest have had to step in to meet the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the law that regulates all water suppliers. In an ever more difficult struggle to deliver clean tap water to their customers, an increasing number of water utilities throughout the corn belt are investing huge sums on special treatment measures to reduce the level of herbicides in finished drinking water. Ultimately, of course, these costs are passed on to Midwest consumers, with a price tag of tens of millions of dollars each year.

Surveys show that most people believe that water suppliers and drinkers should not have to pay to clean up after polluters. And no one should have to tolerate tap water tainted by toxic weed killers. But that's what most of us are doing right now.
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While healthy adults aren't usually bothered by most low-level impurities in drinking water, some who do get sick never blame their tap water.

Dr. Robert Morris of the Medical College of Wisconsin notes that "It takes a lot of people getting sick, and going to physicians, and then it also takes the physicians diagnosing the illness and recognizing that it's water-borne, and very often all of those things don't happen."

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