This week's NEWS

Unusual formation of bromate in uncovered reservoirs with no ozone treatment. Exposé raises new questions about 1988 UK dumping of aluminum water treatment chemical into finished water. Class-action lawsuits over chemical contamination of ground water are settled or filed or contemplated. What might climate change have in store for water quality? There must be something that is Number 1 in every Orange County in the country. New research on fluoride effect on older people and what Canada thinks about the need for a chlorine standard.

Happy Holidays to all! We are off next week but will be back with you on January 3, 2008!

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Federal Updates

• USEPA's 2007 Annual Safe Drinking Water Hotline report (PDF file, 427 K)

• States are changing their rules:
  • Alaska amends its Drinking Water Intended Use Plan for FY 2007 to give the state more surveillance program money and proposes to change the interest rate charged to municipalities under the Alaska DWSRF
  • Idaho's implementation guidance for the LT2ESWTR (PDF file, 37 pages) and the Stage 2 DBPR (PDF file, 101 K) looks a lot like USEPA's, which makes sense since Idaho is adopting the federal rules by reference.
  • Ohio proposes overhaul of its UIC rules (PDF file, 11 K); the draft rule (scroll down page to "draft rules")
  • Oklahoma proposes changes in Operations standards (PDF file, 113 K) and Treatment requirements (PDF file, 430 K) 
  • Texas has tweaked its Stage 2 DBP, LT2ESWT and ground water rules to meet primacy requirements (PDF file, 41 K); the complete rules (PDF file, 10 MB)
• Washington's December Water Tap newsletter (PDF file, 692 K)

Water Treatment

• Texas capital city's long road to site a new water treatment plant takes major step forward (Austin American Statesman, December 14)
• Missouri town's bacteriological record leads to planning for chlorination... not yet state-mandated (Westside Star Daily, December 18)

Bromate

• Elevated bromate levels found in two Los Angeles City open reservoirs; taken out of service (Los Angeles Times, December 15); LADWP statement and the State Health Department letter requiring ongoing bromate monitoring program
  Commentary: Bromate is regulated by the state (and USEPA) as a potential byproduct resulting from the use of ozone for disinfection. The open reservoirs, already on schedule to be addressed pursuant to the LT2ESWTR, had received only chlorinated ground water. The formation of bromate from the reactions of the chlorinated water containing bromide with sunlight has not been reported before.

Legal Matters

• USEPA announces settlement of lawsuit against Merck for waste discharges that threatened Philadelphia's drinking water source (USEPA Region 3 news release, December 13)
  Commentary: The $20+ million settlement by Merck was for discharges of potassium thiocyanate (KSCN) from a huge pharmaceutical facility to a wastewater plant on the watershed of Wissahickon Creek, a tributary to the Schuykill River, a major source of drinking water. The city had to temporarily shut down its drinking water intake.
• Florida city warns residents about private water-testing scam (Fort Myers News Press, December 14)
• Newspaper kicks off six-part series on a major Illinois ground water contamination lawsuit:
  • Part 1: The plaintiffs (Northwest Herald, December 16)
  • Part 2: The plume (Northwest Herald, December 17); timeline
  • Part 3: Is there a cancer cluster and is it related? (Northwest Herald, December 18)
• Shell settles class action lawsuit over Illinois gas-pipeline-break ground water contamination for $46 million (Kankakee Daily Journal, December 13); timeline of the 1988 spill and a Q&A with a lead plaintiff attorney
  Commentary: These last two stories evoke "A Civil Action" (despite the plaintiff attorney's glib comparison in the Q&A to his counterpart in that infamous case/book/movie). These sagas have already spread over decades and with the complexity of hydrogeology, epidemiology, and legalology (which is the study of confounding legal motions designed to stretch out and obfuscate reality), you probably shouldn't hold your breath for the movies to appear.

Chromium

• California regulators approve PG&E plan for in situ cleanup using ethanol at infamous Hinkley ground water site; residents skeptical (Desert Dispatch, November 28)

Aluminum Sulphate

• Exposé on 1988 accidental dumping of tons of aluminum sulphate into a finished water reservoir (London Daily Mail, December 15); the 2005 report of a UK DOH committee on toxicity of chemicals which investigated what is known as the "Lowermoor Water Pollution Incident"

Chlorine

• The Canadian Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Drinking Water publishes its Guideline Technical Document on Chlorine in Drinking Water
  Commentary: No specific limit is proposed by Health Canada in this consultation document.  Their reaction to guidelines or standards adopted by WHO, USEPA, and Australia for chlorine is succinct: "Based on the lack of toxicity observed in animal studies, these standards or guidelines are considered to be extremely conservative."

Disinfection Byproducts

• Two Texas water systems notify of slight non-compliance with THM standard:  
  • Texarkana's THM exceedance is so small "you couldn't see it in your hand" (Texarkana Gazette, December 15)
  • District lowers chlorine levels and flushes system (Paris News, December 17)

Fluoridation

• Study suggests that fluoride in tap water may help older teeth too (Reuters UK, December 14); abstract of the study report (Journal of Public Health Dentistry, Fall 2007)
• Debate on implementation of fluoridation mandate in Salt Lake County features lawsuit and legislation (Salt Lake Tribune, December 15)
  Commentary: Maybe the above study report needs to be read by the GM of the small water system who opposes fluoridation in Utah who said: "Fluoridation for children's teeth doesn't play a great role for 80-year-old ladies."

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

Municipal Bottled Water Services With the rapid expansion of the bottled water market, many utilities are considering bottling municipal water for reasons ranging from revenue generation to public relations. Malcolm Pirnie has worked with over 20 utilities on municipal bottled water issues, providing services that have included supervision of bottling operations, quality control of bottled product, flavor profile analysis (FPA) testing, shelf-life determinations, feasibility studies, program planning, equipment procurement, and facility design. This unique breadth of knowledge allows Malcolm Pirnie to provide unmatched experience to utilities exploring bottled water options. For more information on these services, please contact Brent Alspach at balspach@pirnie.com, or Michael McGuire at mmcguire@pirnie.com.

Radiological

• Georgia town approves contract-treatment provider to remove uranium from one well; no decision on three wells with radium (Atlanta Journal Constitution, December 13)

Arsenic

• Minnesota town addresses arsenic issue with new wells funded by state loan (Grand Forks Herald, December 13)
• Source of arsenic in New Jersey township's private wells not known; state considers hookup to public system or treatment options (Easton Express Times, December 14)
• New York utility uses "zirconium hydroxide" media to get wells back online (Journal News, December 18)
• Indiana school agrees with state; will shut off drinking water fountains and hook to public system in one year (Munster Times, December 18)

Desalination

• Tampa Bay desalination plant passes key test... and is "no longer under construction" (St. Petersburg Times, December 18)
• Proponent of Southern California desalination facility provides answers to questions about environmental impacts (North County Times, December 16)
• Cost and quality issues raised by opponents of Northern California proposal to desalt water from San Francisco Bay (Marin Independent Journal, December 17)

Climate Change and Water Quality

• AMWA's white paper on climate change implications cites water contamination threats from flooding and resultant sewage overflows to drinking water sources and what utilities are doing about potential climate change problems

Source Water Protection

• USEPA's December Nonpoint Source News-Notes newsletter (PDF file, 1.2 MB)
• Arizona's 2007 annual report on its Nonpoint Source Program (PDF file, 2.85 MB)

Nitrate

• USEPA tests water at Pennsylvania hog farm after high nitrate reported in public water system's wells (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, December 15)

PFCs

• 3M study shows no adverse effect on rats (Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 18)

Aesthetics

• Maine's rural water group picks the "best tasting" water... which has no taste at all (Brunswick Times Record, December 13)

Water Reuse

• Latest issue of WateReuse News
• Columnist says California Orange County's highly treated, recycled water is Number 1... and it pairs well with a Big Mac (Los Angeles Times, December 14)
• ...and North Carolina's Orange County will try to catch up by serving recycled water from a proposed plant to their own Number 1: The UNC Tarheels (Chapel Hill News, December 16)

International

• Finland "accident investigation board" probes raw sewage contamination of city's drinking water (Helsinki News, December 15)
• World Bank reports startling statistics about the daunting problem with contaminated water (CNN, December 17)
  Commentary: The statement that "at any one point in time, 50 percent of all people in the developing world will be in hospital suffering from one or more water-related diseases"  is almost incomprehensible.
• Villages in India have water supply heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals; researcher projects serious long-term health effects (Bombay Times, December 18)

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