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New Fears Raised Over Safety of D.C. Water

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 19, 2007; A01

Toxic chlorine pollutants were found at unsafe levels in 40 percent of D.C. tap water samples tested this spring during the water utility's annual chlorine surge, according to a national environmental group's report to be released today.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group conducted tests at 18 sites -- including private homes, an elementary school, the U.S. Capitol and the Environmental Protection Agency -- to measure the levels of chlorine toxins that could cause cancer, reproductive problems and developmental delays in children. In 90 percent of the samples, the tests found another class of chlorine toxin at levels that some epidemiological studies have associated with low birth weight and serious birth defects.

The findings suggest that the chemicals needed to help make Potomac River water potable could be creating a different risk to consumers. Chlorine is used to kill disease-causing microbes. Heavy use results in chemical compounds, called disinfection byproducts, that are formed when organic matter in the river water reacts with the chlorine.

The District's water utility has reported a general decrease in chlorine toxins since it switched from treating its water with chlorine to less-potent chloramine in 2000. But environmental groups and scientists said the new findings highlight a potential problem nationwide for many water utilities that, as in Washington, have switched at the EPA's urging to the chloramines and periodically flush their systems with high doses of chlorine to kill pathogens deep in their pipes.

The tests were conducted from May 1 to 4, at the end of a month-long "chlorine burn" the Washington Aqueduct annually conducts to remove sludge and sediment from pipes. The burn temporarily raises the levels of the toxins.

The Washington-based working group specializes in researching environmental issues, notably chemical contaminants in water and pesticides in food.

Its report comes amid concerns raised about the quality of the water supply for more than 1.1 million customers in the District, Arlington and Falls Church after dangerously high levels of lead contamination were found in tap water. Neighborhood and environmental activists have complained that the Washington Aqueduct, which treats the water, and the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, which delivers the water to customers, do not do enough to address general water concerns or the high lead levels found last year in D.C. public schools' water.

Washington Aqueduct General Manager Thomas P. Jacobus said the latest study results are what he would have expected and were probably temporary. He stressed that D.C. water meets EPA safety standards because test results for the concentration of chlorination compounds are averaged over the year.

WASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson did not respond to calls for comment. His spokesman, Michele Quander-Collins, said WASA's testing shows acceptable levels of disinfection toxins in the water supply in every monthly test this year.

"The byproduct levels we test for at eight EPA-approved locations have been well within EPA parameters," she said. "Our tests don't show high levels."

Rick Rogers, a water official in EPA's regional office in Philadelphia, which is responsible for overseeing the District's water quality, said the test results submitted by WASA do not suggest any problem with chlorine toxins. He said EPA regulations focus on limiting risks from long-term exposure, not short-term spikes.

"A couple of months of higher numbers -- we don't have any information that shows conclusively that that causes health risks," he said.

But the working group said the high levels found during the chlorine flushing reflect badly on what it calls the aqueduct's antiquated treatment system and the EPA's lack of knowledge about the ramifications of using a brew of chemicals to make dirty river water potable.

"It's time to face up to the fact that it's impossible to take the Potomac River in its current polluted state, put it through a very old, rudimentary treatment system and get water that people can safely drink," said the group's executive director, Richard Wiles.

His organization recommends that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the aqueduct, switch to carbon filtration to remove more chlorine byproducts and that residents use Brita-like filters until then.

Wiles said the District's water problem is a "classic case" of a national water-treatment problem.

Although the EPA has urged utilities to disinfect with chloramines instead of chlorine, many utilities find the chloramines are not strong enough to kill microbes throughout their vast distribution systems. They flush every year or two with chlorine to kill pathogens such as cryptosporidium, which can kill people with vulnerable immune systems. Some studies suggest chloramines are creating more toxic kinds of chlorine byproducts, few of which have been thoroughly studied.

"We switched from one treatment to the next" before knowing whether it was safe, Wiles said.

To carry out the tests, the working group submitted samples to an independent lab, Environmental Engineering and Technology. It tested for two disinfection byproducts: total trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Nineteen sites were tested, but one sample was lost.

The tests found that trihalomethanes were not markedly increased and did not exceed safety limits. But haloacetic acids were at the highest levels in the city since 2001, when the aqueduct started chloramine treatment.

The highest concentrations were found at a bathroom tap at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, at an elementary school in Northwest Washington and at the home of a pregnant woman. Unsafe levels were also found at water fountains and bathroom taps at two public parks, in Anacostia and Fort Dupont, and at the National Zoo.

Robert Etris, director of public utilities for Falls Church, and David Hundelt, chief of water, sewer and streets for Arlington County, said they were not worried about the high levels.

"Well, if it were in my water system I would be, but we are not finding that in our system," Etris said of the chlorine pollutants. "If these samples were taken during the chlorine flush, which was a very short amount of time, then the numbers might be on the high side."

Hundelt agreed that the spike in levels should not make consumers fear for their health. "The risk is not an acute risk," he said.

Staff writer Amy Orndorff contributed to this report.

Washington D.C. Water Treatment Linked to Lead

05/22/2004 - ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Derrill Holly

D.C. officials said yesterday that they have evidence linking a change in the water disinfection process to the lead contamination plaguing thousands of households. The Washington Aqueduct has used chloramines — a compound made up of ammonia and chlorine — to treat water supplied to the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA), the city of Falls Church and Arlington County for nearly two years.

From April 2 to May 7, the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the aqueduct, switched to chlorine as part of routine system maintenance. "We saw a significant downward trend in lead test results that we got in that period of time," said Jerry Johnson, general manager of WASA. The data reflecting the lower readings were compiled from samples provided by 3,085 customers who returned water test kits during the period. WASA also conducted extensive sampling at seven homes. Results were compared with data collected from 5,669 samples analyzed in March.

"We found about a 25 [percent to] 30 percent difference in the lead concentrations," said Mike Marcotte, WASA's chief engineer. The results from the final three weeks of chlorine use were even more dramatic, ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent lower levels of lead.

The Environmental Protection Agency has established a maximum standard for lead in drinking water at 15 parts per billion. Although no home tested during the temporary switch to chlorine met that safety level, one home experienced a tenfold reduction. "The results are fairly startling," Mr. Marcotte said. It is believed that chloramines made the water more corrosive, allowing lead to leach from water mains, pipes and fixtures into tap water. Officials have asked the EPA to review its findings.

At least 23,000 of WASA's 130,000 customers have been urged to test their water amid concerns it might contain levels of lead potentially harmful to small children and pregnant women. Thousands of water filters have been distributed since February.

But officials have no plans to abandon chloramine use. EPA data have indicated that disinfection byproducts from that method are about 40 parts per billion, compared with 75 parts per billion with chlorine. Beginning June 1, engineers with the Corps of Engineers plan to begin adding zinc orthophosphates to the water in an effort to place a mineral coating in the pipes. That would prevent water flowing through the pipes from touching the lead.

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High Lead Found in Boston Area Water

Boston, MA - 4/28/2004 - (Washington Post) - By Carol D. Leonnig

Federal and state regulators ruled yesterday that the drinking water delivered to 2.5 million customers in the Boston region has lead levels above the acceptable national standard, a decision prompted in part by lead problems in the District's water supply.

Yesterday's ruling came after months of scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Massachusetts regulators who reviewed every water test conducted last year by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). All water utilities must perform annual lead analyses to comply with the national Safe Drinking Water Act. The utility was seeking to invalidate tests from 18 households, most with high lead levels. Approval of the rare request would have allowed the utility to declare itself in compliance with federal law.

But the handling of lead problems in the District has raised concerns about eliminating test results and prompted some members of Congress to demand that the EPA monitor the issue more aggressively. After reviewing the tests in the Boston region, the EPA and the state yesterday told the MWRA, the largest water utility in New England, that it could not invalidate the tests. The decision means the utility is considered to have high levels of lead in its water and is out compliance with federal law, an MWRA spokesman said yesterday.

By law, customers in Boston and its suburbs must be notified that the water could pose health risks to vulnerable populations, such as young children and pregnant women. The high lead readings were concentrated in 10 of 28 suburban communities. MWRA officials said they expect that those 10 would have to begin replacing roughly 7 percent of their lead service lines in the next year, a requirement when 10 percent of the test results exceed the federal lead standard of 15 parts per billion.

EPA Region I officials said the state will now verify the utility's test results for each community, and MWRA officials said that review will officially determine which of the suburban communities must replace lead service lines. The MWRA had unsafe lead levels from 1997 to 2001, forcing Boston to replace hundreds of lead service lines. But the utility was in compliance in 2002 and 2003. Last year, the utility declared that it had reduced its lead levels to a safe level.

Utility spokesman Jonathan Yeo said yesterday's decision was disappointing "but not surprising."

"Now we'll be back to where we were for years," Yeo said. "There's only so much a water supplier can do. In the end, it's the source of lead in people's faucets or in the pipes in their homes." Boston has replaced more than two-thirds of its lead service lines, which is supposed to reduce lead levels in water. Regulators said the surrounding communities where high lead levels were found may not have replaced many lead service lines.

Massachusetts began its review of the utility's plan to toss out some test results in late January just as news broke about Washington's lead problem. Tap water tests conducted by the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority last year found lead levels that exceeded the federal standard in thousands of District households.

As the severity of Washington's problem unfolded in February and March, members of Congress demanded that the EPA determine whether it was missing or mishandling lead threats elsewhere. The EPA's top water administrator, Benjamin Grumbles, vowed at a congressional hearing to make sure Washington's lead problem wasn't repeated and to find out whether similar problems were lurking in other communities' water supplies.

"Region I got interested early on because of the interest in lead nationally because of D.C.'s problem, and to make sure everybody is regulating consistently across the country," said Damon Gutterman, a water monitoring supervisor in the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

State environmental authorities considered allowing the MWRA to strike 18 samples out of 425 taken in the required annual measurement of the region's water quality. EPA officials questioned whether eliminating some samples might unfairly manipulate the results and violate the law.

Results of a federally required water test are supposed to be invalidated only when a water sample has been tampered with, a sample container has broken or the sample was taken from the wrong location, according to EPA officials. Not reporting results from a required water sample is considered a clear violation and could be considered criminal.

The MWRA said about half of the 18 samples at issue should be discarded because of errors made by homeowners; half were unusually high compared with previous years' results. In several meetings over the past four months, EPA officials warned the state that the law specifically prohibited rejecting a sample because of homeowner error or unusually high results.

EPA officials said in interviews yesterday that they expressed concern about MWRA's invalidation proposal before learning of Washington's problem. But they acknowledged that the EPA is scrutinizing water utilities and lead issues more closely after the Washington experience.

"The agency obviously has an increased awareness about the lead issue now since D.C.," said Karen McGuire, a senior water official at the EPA's Region I office. "Does the D.C. situation inform us and help us learn? Absolutely, yes."

Some of what the EPA is learning about the Boston region's water supply is similar to what surfaced in Washington. A former WASA manager who was fired has alleged that the Washington utility tossed out some test results with high lead readings in order to avoid running afoul of federal law in 2001, two years before the utility found excessive levels in thousands of District homes.

WASA maintains that it consulted with the EPA about rejecting those results, but the EPA says it never approved invalidating any WASA tests. The dispute is the subject of an extensive EPA audit launched last month into all WASA water testing dating back to 1994. Except in the District and Wyoming, state officials have primary responsibility for regulating the nation's 60,000 water utilities.

Staff researchers Meg Smith and Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.

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Utility ensures South Shore water to stay MTBE free

Lake Tahoe, CA. Nov. 11, 2003 (Tribune) - South Tahoe Public Utility District Board of Directors last week formalized its commitment to keep the drinking water MTBE-free.

Only in emergency situations will it serve water that contains more than 0.2 parts per billion of the gasoline additive. If such a situation arises, the district will notify the public before it serves the water, said Dennis Cocking, district spokesman. The board adopted a non-detect policy for MTBE in 1999. It considers 0.2 parts per billion non-detect because equipment today cannot detect MTBE at a lower level.

California requires the public be notified if it is being served water that contains the gasoline additive at more than 3 parts per billion. State standards forbid water from being served if it contains MTBE at more than 13 parts per billion. "Our policy up until now didn't have a numerical value," Cocking said. "This also sets out a series of guidelines if detection is found at a well."

MTBE, methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a byproduct of petroleum that makes gasoline burn cleaner, but it also pollutes groundwater when it escapes from tanks and pipes at gas stations. The oil industry started adding it to gasoline on a large scale after the Clean Air Act passed in 1990. Because MTBE is now the most common contaminant of ground water in the United States, a possible source of human exposure is bathing in contaminated water. This exposure may occur through inhalation or absorption through the skin.

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300,000 boil water after major main break

Jersey City, NJ. Nov. 13, 2003 (Water Tech e-news) - After a water main break, water officials have advised some 300,000 people in Jersey City, Hoboken and Lyndhurst to continue boiling tap water until further notice, for at least three minutes if it will be used in food preparation, drinking or brushing teeth, officials said.

The precaution began when the water main break caused a big drop in water pressure in Jersey City, the state's second-largest city, and nearby Lyndhurst. Decreased pressure brings a risk of bacterial contamination, and water sampling test results are due to come back. The results will be evaluated with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the boil water advisory will also be evaluated at that time.

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Study: Extra oxygen doesn't make bottled water healthier

Seattle, Nov. 12, 2003 (The Seattle Times) - Researchers in Seattle and North Carolina have thrown a wet blanket on certain health claims for bottled water infused with extra oxygen. A study of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that each of the five brands of oxygenated water the researchers tested contained less oxygen in 12 ounces than is contained in a single human breath.

The study was conducted by researchers at Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center and at Duke University in North Carolina. Many brands of oxygenated water claim or imply they enhance energy and athletic performance. The researchers would not identify any of the five brands they tested.

Lead researcher Dr. Neil Hampson, who heads the pulmonary and critical-care section at Virginia Mason, said it is not clear whether the body can absorb oxygen through the digestive system. But even if that is possible, he said, oxygen is "very insoluble" in water, so it's unlikely the level could be raised enough to enhance athletic performance.

"Most of these brands are making overt or implied claims" about enhanced energy levels, Hampson said, but the study did not support those claims. In fact, he said, "There is no information to suggest that a normal person benefits from getting more oxygen."

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Water study reveals widespread plant failures

Toronto, Nov. 13, 2003 (Water-Tech e-news) - Nearly one in eight water treatment plants in Southern Ontario during the 1990s failed to meet drinking water guidelines, according to a study released in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.

The plants were mostly small and in rural areas, but the large number of them studied meant that a substantial population, almost 100,000 residents, had inadequate treatment systems, nearly 500 water plants were part of the study. The research covered the period from 1992-99 when Ontario had no laws governing the treatment of drinking water, and relied on non-binding, voluntary guidelines for municipal water quality.

The biggest concern was over Cryptosporidium, a protozoa that causes watery diarrhea. An outbreak spread through Milwaukee's water system in 1993 and sickened more than 400,000 people. Cryptosporidium isn't destroyed by the normal levels of chlorine used to disinfect water. Filtration is the most effective way to remove the protozoa. According to the study, about 40 per cent of the water systems in Ontario surveyed lacked filtration in 1999.

The study also said that chlorine can cause the formation of trihalomethane, a carcinogen, in water that contains organic matter. Water that contains blue-green algae when treated with chlorine can also cause the release of cancer-causing toxins.

After the Walkerton tragedy in 2000, when seven people in the Ontario farming community died from E-coli in their municipal water system, the province adopted mandatory drinking water standards. Figures on the number of water plants not complying with the rules were not immediately available though. The study also warned that the country's water treatment plants still have weaknesses that could lead to disease outbreaks.

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Toxic chemical found beneath Rocketdyne lab

April 11, 2003, Simi Valley, CA (Simi Star) – Officials from the state Department of Toxic Substances and Control has announced that trichloroethylene, a cancer-causing solvent used since the 1940s to flush out and clean rocket engines after each test, has saturated the ground water, soil and sandstone at the Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab in Simi Valley.

Officials said in a press briefing the cancer-causing solvent seeped to depths ranging from 240 to 450 feet into the ground. The discovery means another dangerous agent can be added to the list of radioactive and chemical contaminants found at the site.

Last year the EPA identified TCE as being 60 times more toxic than previously thought, noting that vapors from the solvent can permeate up through the soil into homes and workplaces. Currently the acceptable level for the chemical in drinking water is 5 parts per billion, which EPA officials say is likely to be lowered in the future. Well testing by the Department of Toxic Substances and Control at the Rocketdyne site revealed concentrations of TCE at 10,000 parts per billion and higher.

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Toxic benzene found at auto yard in Kent

April 27, 2003, Kent, WA (King County Journal) – Preliminary results of soil and groundwater testing by the EPA at the now-closed Japanese Auto Wrecking yard show extremely high levels of cancer-causing benzene. The EPA has begun a risk assessment that will determine specific dangers to the public and the environment, including the aquifer, or groundwater, under the site.

The EPA will determine if there are private wells in the immediate area.

Japanese Auto has been cited numerous times in recent months by local and state agencies for violations of land use and environmental regulations. One of the groundwater samples showed benzene levels at 19,000 parts per billion, or well above the federal government’s safe standard of 5 parts per billion, according to another EPA official. It’s much too soon to say whether the pollution on the site is severe enough to place the site on the federal Superfund list.

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Dirty wells in Santa Rosa

April 28, 2003, Santa Rosa, CA (Press Democrat) – Anger and distrust gripped a west Santa Rosa neighborhood when residents were notified that a dry cleaning solvent had contaminated their wells.

With 70,000 household wells, Sonoma County has the largest population in California dependent on wells for drinking water. Property owners are responsible for maintaining wells and monitoring water quality.

Many contamination problems are linked to human activities and don’t surface until years later. Fuel, solvents, nitrates, pesticides and metals have been found at levels considered harmful to people. A property owner developing a former gas station discovered the solvent tetrachloroethylene in test wells in November 1999.

But residents didn’t learn that wells in their neighborhood were contaminated until notices were posted on doors of homes and businesses the following September.

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MTBE reading troubles Ringwood

April 29, 2003, Ringwood, NJ (North Jersey Media Group) – An underground plume of leaked gasoline is again haunting a residential neighborhood. A test result showing the gasoline additive MTBE to be at the state cleanup action level in a homeowner’s well has heightened the worries of local officials and residents who live near a Mobil station.

“We obviously are very alarmed that it was a high reading. This is what we have all been concerned about for some time,” Mayor Jerry Holt said. Holt was referring to a recent test that found 70 parts per billion of MTBE in a private well.

MTBE in another private well increased to 11 ppb from less than 1 ppb, he said. In response to the latest test results, the Houston-based Corporation will do monthly tests of residential wells in the area. It previously was doing quarterly tests.