NEW YORK, September 25, 2009 (Water Tech) — Toxins too high in many schools’ water: report

TAMPA, FL, September 25, 2009 (Water Tech) — Tampa leaders mull ‘toilet-to-tap’

WASHINGTON, October 1, 2009 (Water Tech) — EPA extends perchlorate comment period

SACRAMENTO, CA, October 2, 2009 (Water Tech) —CA lead-free rule applies to treatment devices

PHILADELPHIA, October 2, 2009 (Water Tech) — EPA orders PA system to reduce arsenic

FRESNO, CA, October 6, 2009 (Water Tech) — EPA called on to address toxic school-water

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2009 (Water Tech) — Final airliner drinking water rule to take effect

COTTONWOOD, AZ, October 7, 2009 (Water Tech) — Small city’s tough search for arsenic treatment

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN, October 7, 2009 (Water Tech) — High levels of lead in Purdue U. water

NAPLES, FL, October 9, 2009 (Water Tech) — Four FL schools find drinking water violations

UTICA, NY October 13, 2009 (Water Tech) — Lead detected in Utica, NY, city schools

Toxins too high in many schools’ water: report

NEW YORK, September 25, 2009 (Water Tech) — Unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and other contaminants have been found in the drinking water at thousands of US schools in all 50 states over the last decade, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have the authority to require testing for all schools, according to an investigative report by The Associated Press (AP), published September 25.

Although the EPA can provide environmental guidance, according to the report, “the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied.”

Drinking water expert Marc Edwards, Ph.D., a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, said “it’s an outrage” that “we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep schoolchildren safe.”

The AP report includes a comment from Cynthia Dougherty, head of EPA’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water, in which she notes “there’s a different risk for kids” than for adults in drinking contaminated water.

Because children drink more water per pound than adults, they are more vulnerable to the effects of hazardous substances, the AP reported, noting that stricter federal safe drinking water regulations for a number of contaminants, such as arsenic, mean drinking water at more schools is now exceeding standards.

The AP investigation found that the problem is most apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation’s schools. AP said that after it analyzed data from the EPA, it found that “roughly one of every five schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade.”

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Talk to your local school’s about the advantages of having a Multi-Pure Drinking Water System.

Tampa leaders mull ‘toilet-to-tap’

TAMPA, FL, September 25, 2009 (Water Tech) — City Council members in a September 24 workshop considered whether to send to public vote a plan to supplement the city’s drinking water supply with treated wastewater, according to recent local reports.

Tampa Councilman Charlie Miranda is in favor of the so-called “toilet-to-tap” proposal and wants to offer Tampa voters an opportunity to decide on the plan by including a proposition in an upcoming election. To support his position, Miranda held up a glass of untreated water from the city’s current source, the Hillsborough River. He used the brown-tinted liquid to emphasis that treatment technologies turn otherwise unsafe water into a potable supply, according to a September 25 St. Petersburg Times article.

The proposed toilet-to-tap plan could cost more than $200 million. But supporters of the plan have said its price tag and environmental benefits are more agreeable than the $340 million plan proposed by Mayor Pam Iorio, according to a September 24 Tampa Tribune article and the St. Petersburg Times article. This spring, the city announced plans to expand its reclaimed water system for lawn irrigation throughout portions of the city.

EPA extends perchlorate comment period

WASHINGTON, October 1, 2009 (Water Tech) — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the comment period regarding perchlorate to October 8.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in early August announced that

the agency was seeking public comment on its re-evaluation of scientific information about the presence of the rocket-fuel chemical in drinking water, as WaterTech Online® reported. That announcement was published in the August 19 Federal Register. The original comment deadline had been September 18.

EPA published its intent to extend the comment period in the September 23 Federal Register.That notice said that the opportunity to provide additional comments about perchlorate’s health effects in drinking water were requested by several stakeholders. The action reopens the public comment period for an additional 15 days.

According to a September 29 AWWA Streamlines article, comments filed so far show a wide range of public views on the perchlorate issue. For instance, wholesaler giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is pushing for a national perchlorate standard.

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

SACRAMENTO, CA, October 2, 2009 (Water Tech) — A law in California designed to reduce potential incidences of childhood lead poisoning, AB 1953, will require drinking water treatment units to comply with the law’s lead-free definition effective January 1.

According to the Water Quality Association (WQA), the California Department of Public Health is in the process of writing a guidance memo that states that drinking water treatment units must comply with the law’s lead-free definition, but that certification for the drinking water treatment units is optional. The memo is expected out sometime in late October.

The WQA said certification is one way to show product compliance, but another option is to have test reports or a complete wetted-parts list that shows all components to be in compliance (i.e., all components certified as compliant with AB 1953 and SB 1334). The legislation was entered into the California Health and Safety Code Section 116875 on September 30, 2006. It takes effect on January 1, 2010.

This bill revises the 1966 federal Safe Drinking Water Act definition of “lead-free” for plumbing products in California. The old definition stated that plumbing pipes, fixtures and fittings could not contain more than 8 percent lead. The new state definition sets a level of no more than a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead by weight when used in the wetted surfaces of pipes and pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures.

A subsequent California law, SB 1334, says that AB 1953 applies to any plumbing in any facility providing water for human consumption. SB 1334 says no person shall sell in California any end-use device intended to convey or dispense water for human consumption through drinking or cooking that is not lead-free as defined in AB 1953 and the new California Health and Safety Code Section 116875.

According to WQA, SB 1334 goes on to require that “all pipe, pipe or plumbing fittings or fixtures, solder, or flux shall be certified by an independent American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited third party, including, but not limited to, NSF International, as being in compliance with this section.”

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems have been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to Lead.

EPA orders PA system to reduce arsenic

PHILADELPHIA, October 2, 2009 (Water Tech) — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on October 1 announced it has issued an order to Sellersville Borough Water Works, Sellersville, PA, to comply with Safe Drinking Water Act standards for arsenic.

The order, issued in consultation with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), requires the water works to submit a detailed plan for achieving compliance with drinking water standards for arsenic, or develop an alternate water source.

The utility, which serves fewer than 10,000 customers, must submit the plan to the EPA and Pennsylvania DEP within 30 days of its receipt of the order. Failure to meet any of the terms of the order subjects Sellersville Borough to a civil penalty of up to $37,500 per day of violation, the EPA said.

The public drinking water standard for arsenic was reduced to 10 parts per billion in January 2006. EPA lowered the standard to reduce the number of bladder, lung and other cancers, as well as non-cancerous adverse health effects resulting from long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water.

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

EPA called on to address toxic school-water

FRESNO, CA, October 6, 2009 (Water Tech) — A US lawmaker has called on the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address recent reports of polluted drinking water systems in US schools, The Associated Press (AP) reported October 5.

US Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees the EPA, on October 5 wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking her to disclose how the agency plans to address the problem. Boxer told Jackson of her “deep concern” that polluted water supplies could be harming schoolchildren as their bodies are developing.

The safety of drinking water in schools was the subject of a recent investigative report by the AP. The news agency reported that unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and other contaminants have been found in the drinking water at thousands of US schools in all 50 states over the last decade. The report noted that the EPA does not have the authority to require testing for all schools, despite the potential risks to which schoolchildren are exposed, as WaterTech Online® reported.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Talk to your local school’s about the advantages of having a Multi-Pure Drinking Water System.

Final airliner drinking water rule to take effect

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2009 (Water Tech) — A new federal rule has amended national standards for the onboard drinking water systems on passenger aircraft, to “protect people’s health when they travel” against microbial contamination, according to an October 6 statement from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Under the new final Aircraft Drinking Water Rule (ADWR), airlines will be required to test and disinfect the water served to passengers and crew, as well as tap water in plane lavatories. Actions called for in the ADWR includes coliform sampling, best management practices, corrective action, public notification, monitoring and operator training.

The EPA said the ADWR was signed by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on October 5 and is to be published in a forthcoming Federal Register. The new rule applies to aircraft (typically, airliners used by the public) regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

Small city’s tough search for arsenic treatment

COTTONWOOD, AZ, October 7, 2009 (Water Tech) — It says it’s been talking and working with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a year. But finally, this small community in central Arizona’s Sedona region has received an order from the EPA to reduce arsenic in its drinking water or face financial penalties, The Verde Independent reported October 7, 2009.

Several issues have complicated the installation of arsenic treatment equipment, the city’s water chief was quoted as saying in the article.

The EPA announced the order on October 6, but Cottonwood Development Services Manager and City Utilities Chief Dan Lueder said the city received the administrative order May 25.

Lueder said Cottonwood had been talking with the EPA about the level of arsenic in its wells since 2008 and about compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act’s three-year-old arsenic standard of 10 parts per billion.

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

High levels of lead in Purdue U. water

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN, October 7, 2009 (Water Tech) — Some Purdue University students and staff are miffed that it took university officials four weeks to publicly announce high levels of lead in the drinking water at five campus buildings, the Journal & Courier reported October 8.

According to university officials, who said there is no immediate health risk, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) set an October 9 deadline for the university to notify students and staff.

IDEM on September 9 notified the university that during routine sampling, lead levels violated safe drinking water maximums. University spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said in the story that within 24 hours of the state’s notification, Purdue injected a phosphate chemical into the affected pipes to coat the water lines.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems have been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to Lead.

Four FL schools find drinking water violations

NAPLES, FL, October 9, 2009 (Water Tech) — Water in four schools in Florida’s Collier County that are supplied by their own wells and treatment systems have exceeded federal safe drinking water standards on several occasions since 2006, an October 8 naplesnews.com article said.

Based on state and federal records examined by reporters, Palmetto Elementary School exceeded the copper and lead standard in June (while school was not in session) and the copper standard again in August (after students had returned to school); Estates Elementary School exceeded the coliform standard in December 2006; and Sabal Palm Elementary and Cypress Palm Middle schools, which share a treatment system, exceeded the standard for haloacetic acids, a type of disinfection byproduct (DBP), in every quarter of 2008, the article said.

Tests at the schools are conducted twice annually for copper and lead, quarterly for haloacetic acids and monthly for coliform, naplesnews.com said.

A spokesman for the Collier County School District was quoted in the article saying that monitoring of the schools’ water will continue and steps will be taken if necessary to correct any problems. There were no immediate indications that the test results demonstrated health risks. The article said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection posted notices at the Palmetto school, and the district was planning to add a chemical to the water system there to reduce pipe corrosion.

Schools in all 50 states have reported thousands of drinking water standards violations over the past decade, the Associated Press reported recently in its own investigation.

Multi-Pure Commentary:
Talk to your local school’s about the advantages of having a Multi-Pure Drinking Water System.

Lead detected in Utica, NY, city schools

UTICA, NY October 13, 2009 (Water Tech) — Drinking water fountains and faucets in nine of this city’s elementary schools have been shut down due to high levels of lead in drinking water, The Observer-Dispatch of Utica reported October 13.

The Utica City School District undertook the voluntary testing of the lead levels in the drinking water at its elementary schools in August.

Testing revealed that out of 230 source outlets tested, 65 tested positive for lead, Superintendent James Willis said in a statement.

The 50 drinking fountains and 15 water faucets have been tagged and are shut off until replacements are installed. New outlets are expected to be in place by December 1, the report said.