Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 20, 2008
4. Water Quality
PERCHLORATE:
Agencies get cleanup funds - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
DRINKING WATER ISSUES:
Editorial: 'Toilet to tap' worries; Do drugs in sewage flow pose health threat? -
Editorial: Chemical levels in water are tiny, but keep testing -
Editorial: Clean up water of disposed drugs - Woodland Daily Democrat
PERCHLORATE:
Agencies get cleanup funds
By Jason Pesick, staff writer
The State Water Resources Control Board has decided to provide
On Tuesday, the board agreed to provide the money from an account funded by penalties that local water boards - regulatory agencies protecting the water supply - impose on polluters.
The drinking water in
Contaminated water is not served to city residents.
The staffs of both the State Water Resources Control Board and Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees the
Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the
"It seems to be more oriented toward better definition of the plume as a way for laying the groundwork for future cleanup," he said. #
DRINKING WATER ISSUES:
Editorial: 'Toilet to tap' worries; Do drugs in sewage flow pose health threat?
As
Whether the trace levels of pharmaceuticals present a health hazard to humans is largely unknown because the problem, a byproduct of the modern biomedical revolution, is relatively new and little studied. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's top water official, Benjamin Grumbles, told The Associated Press: “We recognize it is a growing concern, and we're taking it very seriously.”
A five-month investigation by the AP found that the drinking water in many major cities contains a variety of prescription medicines in low concentrations. The drugs include sex hormones, antibiotics, mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants, among many others. In
“While scientists have not definitively established that people are harmed by these drugs,” the AP's investigative probe concluded, “laboratory tests have shown tiny amounts can have ill effects on human cells.
And the fact that they are being consumed in combination, over many years, at any level worries some researchers.”
Drugs reach the drinking supply in two principal ways. One is through the excrement of humans who have taken the drugs. Their treated sewage is dumped by municipalities into major waterways, such as the Colorado River, which is a supplier of water to
The second major source of drug pollution is surplus prescriptions dumped down toilets to prevent them from getting into the hands of children or others. Some cities, including
The AP's findings are especially urgent for
Over Mayor Jerry Sanders' veto, the City Council has required the city to develop a demonstration project that would turn the municipal sewage flow into potable water, which would be dumped into the San Vicente reservoir. This means, of course, that the sewage would have a much heavier concentration of pharmaceuticals than water diluted by the enormous flow of the
The Environmental Protection Agency has set no federal standards on what would constitute safe levels of various drugs in drinking water. Nor has the state Department of Public Health set any clear guidelines.
In a key study, the respected National Research Council warned that converting toilet water to tap water should be done only as “an option of last resort” because “many uncertainties are associated with assessing the potential health risks of drinking reclaimed water.” The AP investigation certainly underscores the National Research Council's admonition.
Neither the city nor the California Department of Public Health should proceed with dumping treated sewage into the San Vicente drinking water supply until the potential health hazards posed by pharmaceuticals are thoroughly addressed. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080320/news_lz1ed20top.html
Editorial: Chemical levels in water are tiny, but keep testing
The Santa Clara Valley Water District was foresighted in testing for 14 pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in 2002 and 2003. After a request by the Mercury News, the district revealed this week that it had found traces of eight substances, but none above 1 part per billion.
The infinitesimal levels are no cause for alarm. Until recently, the technology to detect the chemicals at that level didn't even exist.
The Mercury News' examination of the quality of local water followed a recent Associated Press report that pharmaceuticals had been found in trace levels in the drinking water of 24 of
That suggests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should research the cumulative effects of these substances and establish what level in water is unacceptable.
But there's an inexpensive way to stop this problem from increasing. We can learn to dispose of pharmaceuticals in a safer way - not by flushing them down the toilet, for starters - that keeps them out of our water. #
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8635234?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Editorial: Clean up water of disposed drugs
Woodland Daily Democrat – 3/16/08
At Issue:
Pharmaceuticals in our water.
Our Opinion:
Nation needs a plan for cleaning our water of drugs.
An investigation recently conducted by the Associated Press revealed some alarming circumstances as we toss pharmaceuticals and their byproducts down our toilets. Apparently, pharmaceutical traces are showing up in our drinking water, and, what's worse, officials either don't care or have no clue as to how to reverse this trend.
During the five-month investigation, the AP learned that tens of millions of Americans are drinking water with minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals without realizing what they are doing.
The Environmental Protection Agency is aware of it, but there is no strategy on how to deal with this, no mandates for testing and no plan for treating or limiting the amount that flows into our waterways.
There isn't even a plan to inform the public, nor do we know for sure if our water supply is unsafe in certain areas.
So far, the EPA's response has been less than comforting. Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA's assistant administrator for water, said, "Our position is there needs to be more searching, more analysis." More stalling is more like it.
We understand it's a complex problem. We're not talking about scores of drug users throwing old Valium pills down drains.
All of us are doing it. Parents, for instance, would rather throw old pills down toilets instead of leaving them around to be accidentally consumed by their children.
There is a worthy program in the Bay Area conducted by Teleosis Institute in Berkeley called Green Pharmacy, which began in June, that has incinerated more than 900 pounds of unused and expired medications from 14 outlets.
The problem is that you're asking people to go out of their way to clean up old medicines and drive to one of these outlets, and, obviously, the majority would rather dump them down the drain.
Now that it has been called to our attention, we simply cannot allow this problem to grow.
It's inexcusable for the EPA to sit on its hands while a crisis brews. We agree the problem is extensive, but it's not impossible.
We expect government officials to aggressively explore solutions, such as upgrading waste management facilities to filter out these chemicals and implement, thorough testing, a way to discover the trouble spots around our nation.
Find the answers, and clean up our water. That's what we expect from the EPA. #
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/opinion/ci_8594222
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