The city’s sewage and wastewater discharges flow into the Cuyahoga River, the Little Cuyahoga River, the Ohio Canal and their tributaries and contribute to the impairment of water quality in those waterways, the release said.

Among other requirements of the settlement, the city must expand capacity at its wastewater treatment plant to allow for treatment of at least an additional 20 million gallons of wastewater per day.

Study finds arsenic prevalent in rural IA wells

IOWA CITY, IA, November 17, 2009 (Water Tech) — Many of the rural private drinking water wells in Iowa that were sampled in a recent study have the same contamination problems found 20 years ago, a November 16 story in The Iowa Independent said.

Long-standing and emerging contamination problems in the state’s rural wells are the subject of a new study led by the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, the article said.

The study, Iowa Statewide Rural Water Well Survey Phase 2, followed up on the results of a similar study conducted in 1988 and 1989; it concluded that many of the problems of 20 years ago remain today. It also pinpointed new contamination worries, such as the presence of arsenic in nearly half of all wells sampled.

From May 2006 to December 2008, investigators sampled 473 wells in 89 Iowa counties for bacteria, nutrients, metals, common-use herbicides and insecticides, and herbicide degradates.

Detections of nitrate and bacteria were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, but the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome, according to Peter Weyer, Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and associate director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination.

“Nearly half the wells sampled had some level of arsenic, and 8 percent of those had a level that could be considered a health concern,” Weyer said.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure’s MP880 Series has been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to reduce Arsenic V.

PA residents sue energy co. over water contamination

SCRANTON, PA, November 20, 2009 (Water Tech) — A number of Pennsylvania residents filed a civil lawsuit in US District Court here on November 19, claiming their drinking water, fields and streams have been contaminated by drilling for natural gas, according to a November 20 report from investigative news organization ProPublica.

Fifteen families are suing Houston-based energy company Cabot Oil and Gas, which has drilled wells near the town of Dimock. Among those bringing suit is a worker at the company, ProPublica reported.

The lawsuit seeks to halt Cabot from drilling more wells in the Marcellus Shale near Dimock; it also seeks to set up a trust fund to cover medical treatment for residents who say they have been made ill by natural gas drilling pollutants. Compensation is also sought for the alleged loss of property values in the rural area.

During hydrofracturing, or “fracking,” a method of natural gas drilling, a water-chemical solution is injected into a gas well under pressure to open up gas-containing rock.

The potential environmental effect of the wastewater created by fracking has been the subject of much debate, especially in areas overlying the gas-bearing Marcellus Shale in several northeast states.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems have been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to reduce Trichloroethylene (TCE), a VOC.

TCE confirmed in IL communities’ supplies

SPRINGFIELD, IL, November 23, 2009 (Water Tech) — Trichloroethylene (TCE) is in the raw source water and finished water supplies of at least three Illinois communities, according to November 20 news releases from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).

The city of Rockford, the village of Fox River Grove, and the Six Oaks Mobile Home Park, located south of Pecatonica, all recently received notice from the IEPA confirming levels of TCE in both raw and finished water supplies. In all cases, TCE levels exceeded 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) — a level that does not yet exceed the Class I groundwater quality standard for TCE of 5.0 ppb that both federal and state law allows in drinking water.

IEPA spokeswoman Maggie Carson was quoted in a November 21 Rockford Register Star article about the notification sent to the city of Rockford’s Public Works Department: “This is a precautionary notification. The water supply is still in compliance.”

Carson said Rockford water officials first detected the TCE during routine water testing, and as required by law, submitted a sample to the state EPA for confirmation.

The source of the TCE in Rockford water and how it entered the water supply have not been determined, the Register Star reported. Carson said it is up to the city to determine how to correct the situation.

TCE, a volatile organic chemical, is a colorless or blue liquid with a chloroform-like odor, used mainly as a solvent to remove grease from metal parts. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, those who consume drinking water with levels of TCE in excess of the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for many years could experience problems with their liver and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems have been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to reduce Trichloroethylene (TCE), a VOC.

High levels of nitrates prompt warning

MARIETTA, OH, November 30, 2009 (Water Tech) — High levels of nitrates have been detected in a portion of the water supply for Devola, affecting more than 900 homes and businesses, according to a November 30 Marietta Times report.

The Putnam Community Water Association on November 26 issued a warning about the situation in Devola, a farming community in Washington County.

Putnam Community Water Association Manager Jay Huck said a November 18 water sample recorded nitrates at 13.8 parts per million (ppm), slightly above the federal safe drinking water maximum contaminant level of of 10 ppm. Another test was performed on November 24, and that test came back at 7.2 ppm. “We have to average those two numbers which left us at 10.55 ppm, over the limit by 0.55 ppm, and prompted the water warning to be issued,” Huck said in the story.

Water high in nitrates that is ingested by infants, pregnant women, adults with low stomach acidity or people with a certain enzyme deficiency can cause methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome,” as the ingested nitrates are converted to nitrites in the body. This reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, and severe cases result in brain damage or death.

Huck said in the story that there were no reported illnesses associated with the recent event. He noted there was a similar warning issued in the water system about two years ago. The current warning will remain in effect until at least the end of this week.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure’s MP750 Plus RO has been certified by NSF International, under Standard 58, to reduce Nitrate/Nitrite.

New study details Iowa’s emerging contaminants

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA, December 2, 2009 (Water Tech) — Wastewater contamination from organic chemicals in consumer products such as soaps, antimicrobial compounds and insect repellents is polluting drinking water sources in the state, according to a newly released report by nonprofit research organization The Iowa Policy Project, the Globe Gazette said December 1.

The report, released December 1, notes that federal and state regulations do not require regulators to monitor such chemicals, which now are showing up in trace quantities in drinking water supplies.

“These go well beyond the well publicized issue of water contamination by pharmaceuticals,” report author William Wombacher said in a conference call with the Globe Gazette. “Neither are there processes that target these chemical compounds for removal or do a very good job of removing them.”

Wombacher said a recent study by University of Iowa scientists found low concentrations of two synthetic fragrance compounds known as AHTN and HHCB in both the Iowa River and in the University of Iowa’s drinking water.

Iowa Policy Project researcher Teresa Galluzzo said regulatory action in the United States that would require better testing and tracking of organic wastewater contaminants is now needed. She noted that the European Union recently imposed tougher testing standards for the manufacturers of such products.

Galluzzo said California’s Proposition 65, which was passed in 1986 and creates an updated list of chemical compounds that are found harmful to human health and are banned from discharge into any water, could serve as a framework for national regulation.

PA AmWater system to switch to chloramines

HERSHEY, PA, December 2, 2009 (Water Tech) — Pennsylvania American Water will change the water treatment process for its West Shore system to chloramine next July, the company said in a December 1 press release.

Beginning the week of July 12, 2010, the company will switch from chlorine disinfection to chloramine. The system serves a number of communities. The company said most customers will not notice the change, although some might notice a reduction in the taste and odor of chlorine.

The company said it needs to convert to chloramine disinfection to comply with more stringent US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards to reduce known health risks associated with disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in chlorinated drinking water.

The group’s two water treatment facilities serve more than 36,000 customers in the Pennsylvania communities of Camp Hill, East Pennsboro, Enola, Fairview, Hampden, Lemoyne, Lower Allen, Newberry, New Cumberland, New Kingstown, Shiremanstown, Silver Spring, Upper Allen and Wormleysburg.

Perchlorate-tainted water gets federal attention

RIALTO, CA, December 3, 2009 (Water Tech) — The state of California now is examining a possible link between a miles-long stretch of contaminated groundwater and illnesses among residents who have lived in the area, The Press-Enterprise reported December 2.

The rocket-fuel ingredient perchlorate and industrial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) seeped from a 160-acre industrial site in Rialto, contaminating soil and groundwater that has been used as a potable supply. The groundwater contamination is considered the Inland region’s largest uncontrolled plume of perchlorate in a drinking water supply, the report said.

Investigations, which began in 2001, were stalled by legal challenges by former users of the site. Now the US Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in, and in September placed the site on the Superfund priority list for cleanup.

EPA and state officials said during a November 25 meeting that the investigation now is again under way, and that some contaminated wells have been closed.