[Dryerase] The Alarm!--H2O: Toxic Water Woes

[The Alarm!Newswire]

Toxic Water Woes

by Bruce Daniels
The Alarm! Newspaper Contributor

Maintaining pure, clean, fresh drinking water is a matter of life or 
death. World water experts say that water-borne diseases cause an 
average of about 25,000 deaths a day. This means about one 
water-related death every three seconds. While the majority of these 
deaths occur in the third world, it is still estimated that in the 
United States there are 4,000 water related deaths each year or eleven 
every day. Here in Santa Cruz County, we have many toxic threats to our 
own local water supplies.

MTBE is a toxic gasoline additive that is a recognized potential human 
carcinogen in drinking water. The allowable limit of MTBE in drinking 
water is a very low five parts per billion (ppb). So even one gallon of 
spilled MTBE could pollute 200 million gallons of drinking water, 
enough to supply 600 families for a year. Santa Cruz County contains 55 
documented MTBE spill sites. The mid-County area has some very 
significant MTBE threats. Although the City of Capitola is only about 
two square miles, it contains four identified MTBE leak sites. The 
immediately adjoining small town of Soquel contains three known MTBE 
leak sites. One of these Soquel leaks had MTBE concentrations of over 
200,000 ppb in groundwater (40,000 times higher than the safe clean-up 
level). This site also leaked over 250 ppb of MTBE into Nobel Creek 
stream water, which drains into Soquel Creek and the Soquel Creek 
Lagoon. Clearly the potential for MTBE impact to our drinking water 
supplies is very clear and immediate.

Chromium (VI) is a compound that can occur in drinking water and was 
the subject of the movie Erin Brockovich. The US EPA says that 
“ingesting large amounts of Chromium (VI) can cause stomach upsets and 
ulcers, convulsions, kidney and liver damage and even death”. The US 
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that 
certain chromium(VI) compounds are known to cause cancer in humans.

Locally, Chromium (VI) has been found in drinking water wells from 
Aptos and La Selva Beach south into the Pajaro Valley and Watsonville. 
Detections of Chromium (VI) within the Soquel Creek Water District 
range from 6–38 ppb and Watsonville has reported concentrations up to 
21 ppb. Since there is yet no official maximum contaminant level 
defined for Chromium (VI), neither agency has seen fit to abandon 
affected wells or even install treatment facilities.

Arsenic is another toxic compound in water and is recognized as an 
extremely potent killer. The recent 2001 National Academy of Sciences 
“Arsenic in Drinking Water” report presents some chilling statistics. 
According to their expert estimates, arsenic in drinking water will 
cause at least 200,000 deaths from lung, bladder, skin and kidney 
cancer in Bangladesh alone. Arsenic is also blamed for heart disease, 
skin problems, reproductive and development effects, neurological 
issues, respiratory effects, liver function, hematologic effects and 
diabetes.

Locally, arsenic has been found in Soquel Creek Water District wells in 
Aptos. There is considerable management confusion over the amounts of 
arsenic actually in these Aptos wells. Initially the Water District 
reported levels of eight parts per billion (ppb). But after a local 
newspaper article was published, the District then decided to lower 
their report to  five ppb. The year before they had reported six ppb.

But even much lower levels of arsenic are still quite dangerous. As a 
recent US News & World Report said “as little as  three ppb of arsenic 
carries a far higher bladder and lung cancer risk than do other 
substances EPA regulates.” The EPA tries to set limits so there is no 
more than one death per million people, but for arsenic the expectation 
is several cancer cases per thousand people! In fact, even with the 
lowest Soquel Creek Water District arsenic level of  five ppb, we would 
still expect 29 cancer cases here.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has recently lowered the maximum 
allowable level of arsenic to  ten ppb effective 2006. As a Director of 
the Water District, I requested at a Board meeting that we inform our 
customers of this change so they could make their own decisions about 
possible health threats. Surprisingly, the other Directors voted to 
keep this information secret. I also requested that budget funds be 
explicitly allocated to investigate possible treatments to reduce or 
eliminate arsenic from our drinking water, but this was also not done.

Maintaining fresh drinking water demands constant vigilance. It is not 
a job for the lazy or complacent. It is not acceptable to relax even 
when drinking water is below the legal maximum contaminant levels, as 
there may still be considerable risk. The public needs to kept informed 
and should demand leaders who understand their concerns and are willing 
to perform the difficult task of delivering on their promises.

Bruce Daniels is the Director of the Soquel Creek Water District and 
Vice Chair  of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

       All content Copyleft © 2002 by The Alarm! Newspaper. Except 
where noted otherwise, this material may be copied and distributed 
freely in whole or in part by anyone except where used for commercial 
purposes or by government agencies.