| April 9, 2008 – Volume 9, No. 15 |
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This week's NEWS
Salmonella-plagued Colorado city status upgraded to "okay to
boil and drink" from "do not use." Specific
organism identified... in Australian publication. Canadian
question: How long do boil water advisories need to stay in
place... and why? What will new bottled water certification mean? Water treatment news ranges from missing UPS
device to routine switch away from chloramines, while Des Moines, IA, faces fertilizer-ammonia problem. There are lots of ways to skin the arsenic cat (with
apologies for the non-PC terminology)... but building a water treatment plant and not
operating it isn't one of them. "I didn't really say THAT,
did I?"
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Colorado
Salmonella Outbreak
- Specific
pathogen identified (Australian Health Streams, March)
Commentary: "As of 25 March the only pathogen reported to have been
identified from fecal specimens of victims was Salmonella
enterica serotype Typhimurium. This bacterium is a common cause
of enteric illness and is frequently associated with foodborne
outbreaks. Waterborne outbreaks due to Salmonella species are
relatively rare, accounting for only 15 outbreaks out of over 300
with identified microbial agents occurring in the U.S. from 1971 to
2002. Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium can be carried
by a range of animals and birds as well as by humans. The time lag
between ingestion of Salmonella and development of symptoms
such as diarrhea or vomiting generally ranges from about 12 to 72
hours. Definitive identification of the organism in stool samples
requires up to seven days, so it is probable that the water
contamination event in Alamosa may have occurred a week or more
before recognition of the first cases in the community, even if
people visited a doctor promptly after becoming ill."
- State
replaces "do not drink" order with "boil all
water" advisory
- No
"new" news since the last state update (Denver Post,
April 3)
Water Treatment
Ammonia
Legal Matters
Compliance
Microbiological
- Investigative report in Canadian
medical journal identifies over 1760 boil water advisories currently
in place:
- Two
provinces account for many of the BWAs (Canadian Medical Association Journal, May early release; PDF file, 64 K)
- Report
data needs to be scrutinized to determine real public health
implications (Toronto Star, April 8)
- Editorial
says new system needed to address neglected Canadian program;
Australian model may work (CMAJ, April 8)
- First
Nation water systems continue to have significant problems (CMAJ,
April 8)
Commentary: The BWAs primarily affect smaller, rural communities, and the
report focuses on several important factors: "Advisories
are intended to be a precautionary measure in the public health tool
kit, but given that some have been in place for at least five years,
they are apparently being used as a band-aid substitute for
treatment." And from British
Columbia, which had the largest number of BWAs: "Our
boil-water advisories have gone up over the past three or four years
because of greater attention to
monitoring and greater attention to risk and probably an application
of the turbidity guidelines.” A
possible reason for the huge variation between different
jurisdictions may be the amount of program support for, and
the attitude of, the provincial enforcement agencies.
- Irish
government report lists many water systems with water quality problems; Cryptosporidium is the major issue (Irish Independent, April 2); county councils fail to comply with legal orders to make corrections (Irish Independent, April 7)
Arsenic
Security
Radium
Lead
- Ohio schools fail
to report or act on high lead test results (Akron Beacon Journal, April 6)
Commentary: In the category of quotes that any public figure would love to
take back when he sees them in print: "...principal
at Burbank Elementary School, north of Wooster, said he didn't
fully understand his legal obligation to notify the public. 'I wasn't, I guess, overly concerned about it,' he said,
referring to the unsafe lead level detected in school water in
September. 'I wouldn't look at it as an immediate life-and-death
situation.'"
Perfluorochemicals
PPCPs
- New
York City council pushes for testing of city's water supply for
PPCPs (New York Times, April 4)
Commentary: The council suggested that the city should not wait for
the federal government to take action, and the city's top water
official assessed the relative lack of risk: "...the
amount of pharmaceutical compounds detected is so small they could
not even be detected until advanced technology was developed a few
years ago. 'A person would have to drink
one million glasses of water to get the dose of even one
over-the-counter ibuprofen tablet or the caffeine in one cup of
coffee,' ... 'Even at eight glasses of water per day, this
would take the average person over 300 years to consume.'"
Invasive
Species
Volatile
Organic Chemicals
Methane Gas
Bottled Water
- Underwriter Laboratories launches a new certification program for
bottled water (UL
news release, March 31)
Commentary: The details of this new program to put the "mark" of UL
on bottled water products that meet the requirements of both the
FDA and the IBWA have not been examined. It will be
interesting to know how the program will work, especially with
regard to ongoing regular monitoring of the sources, treatment,
and bottling processes, as well as the quality of the water in
bottles on the shelf. (The extent to which these activities
are carried out by FDA or its state surrogate agencies is not
clear.)
Publications
Private Wells
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Water
treatment plant optimization is a continuous process as
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