Public Water Supplies

No matter where you live in the country, one of the most important things we must have is access to water. In order to live, we all depend on having a reliable water supply. Many of us take it for granted that when we turn on the tap, the water we get from our utility company or our well is safe and clean. However, as we have seen by stories out of Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, to name only two, we know that is not the case. As documented in the records for many water districts, this appears to be an ongoing issue that never was really addressed. Our water in many cases is not safe for us to drink. 

 

The federal and state governments handle the monitoring and regulations for the water utilities to ensure they are supplying their customers with clean and safe water. It would be reasonable to think part of those regulations includes testing for the wide range of chemicals and contaminants most likely to be in the water. 

 

Disappointingly, this is not even close to being the case. The regulations that govern what the utilities need to test for, how often they need to perform these tests, and how much contamination is allowed are insufficient to protect people. There are many chemicals and contaminants that regularly show up in our water that are not tested for at all. The government says many contaminants are safe at a certain level. The research from the independent scientific community differs with that and has the toxicology reports to show the risk to humans.

 

The EPA only regulates approximately 94 chemicals in drinking water that water companies supply to its customers. Those are the only ones there are enforceable regulations if there are violations. No enforceable standards of any sort are set for many other chemicals the EPA knows are present and also may cause harm. According to a review of data from the CDC, there are more than 286 million people who use drinking water containing contaminants that go unregulated. Many of these contaminants come from industrial waste and from agricultural operations  

 

We have a situation here. We have hundreds and thousands of chemicals not tested for at all but frequently found in our water. We have a small number being tested for, which the government considers safe to consume if below a level the government approved. The remaining hundreds, for which there are no real regulations, the government has a category it calls “guidelines.” Exceeding these guidelines has no consequences and is not enforceable. 

 

In practice, these aren’t guidelines; they’re suggestions. The government suggests water companies do not supply tens of thousands of people with water containing more than these levels of chemicals in it, but there are no consequences if they ignore the suggestions. Many of these unregulated chemicals are toxic. 

 

The Environmental Working Group has collected evidence that tens of thousands of water utilities are delivering water to our taps that exceed the guidelines. 

 

There are no federal limits on half of the contaminants detected in drinking water, according to the report, and establishing such regulations takes years. One of the best quotes I have heard in a long time came from Sydney Evans, who works for the Environmental Working Group as a science analyst: “Legal does not necessarily equal safe.” 

 

The majority of our country gets its household water delivered through a public water supply company. Some of these utility companies are owned by cities and municipalities, and others are owned by private businesses. Regardless of ownership, there are rules and regulations in place supposedly to protect you. That is about as far as it goes, however.

 

The rules and regulations are not written equally for all the water supply companies. The government applies higher standards to larger companies and lower standards to smaller ones. The logic is the larger ones can afford to do a better job of protecting its consumers than the smaller companies with less revenue. The larger ones should be able to remove a wider range of toxic contaminants and deliver water with lower levels of these. Even though all consumers are equal, they are not entitled to the same quality of water. 

 

Both large and small utility companies sometimes try to game the system. A different investigation done by The Guardian discovered that both sizes of utilities, when testing for lead, routinely ask their customers to thoroughly flush their pipes by running the water for a while and removing the aerator before taking a sample. This is directly the opposite of how the EPA tells people to do it. The flushing lowers the level of lead that is in the pipes and faucet and, therefore, does not show a true report. In spite of the EPA asking utilities to stop telling their customers to use this method to get a sample, some continue to do so. According to The Guardian report from 2016, utilities in some of the largest cities used tests that minimize the amount of lead and have been doing this for over a decade. 

 

In Michigan, a lawsuit filed to require local and state authorities to follow the EPA guidelines for testing tap water has succeeded in making the changes sought. The state has amended its water-testing rules to eliminate the instructions to run the tap for several minutes before taking a water sample for testing. That allowed the lead and other continent levels to decrease and gave false readings. 

 

In Bloomfield, New Jersey, levels of lead higher than EPA standards have been detected in samples. The town says after running the water for a short time and flushing the pipes, the level goes down. But, that is exactly what we are not supposed to do. Whenever we get a drink or fill a pot of water, we do not flush the pipes. What the town is requesting people to do is causing false test results. If there is lead in the water when the tap is turned on, then that is a problem people are exposed to.

 

There are issues with the system that need to be fixed. Public water companies are supposed to deliver water free of chemical contamination to their customers. There are several reasons this is not always being done.

 

1. Chemical Contamination

 

As already stated, there are only so many chemicals that a water company is required to test for. Out of the total 84,000 potential chemicals identified by the EPA as possible risks, only a tiny fraction are regularly tested for, and many chemicals have no test designed to detect them. 

Spokespeople for the chemical industry argue that these numbers are a lie and exaggerated. In spite of my feelings about the propaganda the chemical industry promotes, I will agree with them on one point they claim on their website. In their own words from chemicalsafetyfact,org the say, “EPA’s Chemical Data Reporting (CDR)…requires manufacturers to provide the EPA with information every four years on the chemicals they produce domestically or import into the United States. The 2016 CDR showed 8,707 chemicals used in commerce.”

 

I agree with the probable accuracy of the fact that 8,707 chemicals were produced domestically or imported into this country for use in commerce in 2016, all of which needed to be reported to the EPA. That statement, however, has nothing to do with how few chemicals are tested for in our water supply, whether the number the chemical industry likes to use or the number of potential chemicals the EPA lists. The fact remains there still are the same 84,000 chemicals in the EPA database that have been used and have potential to continue to show up in the water. 

 

Additionally, many of the EPA’s 84,000 chemicals are no longer being manufactured or in use because they turned out to be deadly to humans. However, they were used for decades before being banned. As a result, many of these chemicals are still in existence in toxic waste sites, leaking landfills, in soil on golf courses and farm fields, and in old drums stored in warehouses. In other words, they all have the potential to still poison people and should be tested for.

 

Further complicating the chemical industry’s complaints about over-regulation is the simple truth, already stated in this chapter, that many chemicals are not regulated by the EPA with regards to being in public water.  Even if there are tests to detect them, the water companies do not look. That is a horrible way to protect the safety of people. If these chemicals are present in water on a regular basis, they need to be tested for. 

 

Unfortunately, it takes years and millions of dollars to get any change like this to happen. We are up against the entire water supply industry and the entire chemical industry as well. 

 

Furthermore, even when tests show a certain chemical is present in the water, if the amount detected is less than the threshold level set by the EPA, nothing is done even when the chemical is a known carcinogen.

 

What many of these public water companies find when they check the levels of chemicals the EPA requires them to test for is equally shocking

 

In California, hundreds of public wells that are the water source for a million people are contaminated with the chemical TCP. TCP got into public water wells serving central California because Dow Chemical and Shell Oil took TCP and mixed it into agricultural pesticides. Despite the fact this hasn’t been widely used or applied to cropland since the 1970s, it is still present in the water today. The EPA concluded this synthetic chemical is a likely carcinogen to humans. In the city of Arvin, California, TCP levels were over six times the level the state says is acceptable. 

 

Many more sources of chemical contamination are industrial facilities that send their effluent to municipal wastewater treatment plants that don’t have the technology to remove the compounds. Industrial facilities are supposed to pretreat their wastewater to remove many of these toxic compounds, but a lack of real monitoring and enforcement means many companies take a pass on the regulation. 

 

North of Pittsboro, North Carolina, a group of industrial operations send their wastewater to the local sewage treatment plant. The chemicals in the industrial wastewater are not able to be removed at the treatment plant due to inadequate technology in their equipment, so the sewage plant discharges the wastewater containing the chemicals into the Haw River. Downstream from the discharge, Pittsboro water company has an intake where they get the town water supply from. 

 

Tests of Pittsboro water have found perfluorinated compounds, or PFAS. This group of chemicals is suspected of being carcinogenic. The Pittsboro Town Board of Commissioners has agreed to mail notices to local water customers to alert them of contaminants in the town’s drinking water. 

 

In addition to PFAS, the tests are showing the chemical 1,4-dioxane and bromide. A researcher at North Carolina State University said, “I wouldn’t want to drink that water or just give it to an infant without having some additional treatment at home.”

 

In Miami-Dade County, Florida, the public water supplier discovered that several of their main wells have been contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical benzene. The levels were measured at five times the federal level for safety. The utility shut down those wells and shifted over to others to fill in the gap. Then, those wells were also discovered to contain high levels of benzene as well.

 

In Assumption, Illinois, the city sent out notices to its residents warning that allowing infants under six months old to consume drinking water from the public water supply may be fatal to them. The city advised not to use the water to make baby formula or allow any consumption by these infants. High nitrates in the public water supply may cause blue baby syndrome and possibly death.

 

Near Charleston, West Virginia, an industrial chemical storage company operating on the banks of the Elk River spilled a toxic chemical into it, contaminating the water supply for 300,000 people. The spill occurred two miles up the river from where the city water plant had its intake for the municipal water supply. A federal disaster was declared by the White House, and people were warned not to use their water for anything, not even bathing. Several dozen people were in area hospitals with symptoms such as vomiting and skin rashes. Up to 900,000 people were under a no-use ban for a while.

 

In Hoosick Falls, New York, industrial operations contaminated the groundwater the public wells depended on with PFOAs. While the poisons were not found until fairly recently, the companies involved had disposed of these toxic chemicals for decades. Once the local government discovered the municipal water supply had been contaminated, they kept that information to themselves for a while before making the public aware. 

 

A survey by a state university nearby found dozens of residents with various types of cancers and diseases high above the levels which should have been found. PFOAs are a suspected cancer-causing chemical that were phased out of production due to health and environmental concerns. Because of foot dragging and inaction by the federal EPA to set regulations on the amount of PFOA allowed in drinking water, many public water supplies are largely ignoring its presence.

 

Meanwhile, downstate in Newburgh, New York, the water supply was found to contain the toxic chemical PFOS. The contamination is reportedly to have come from firefighting foam used at Stewart Air National Guard Base. The city declared an emergency in 2016 and switched to a new source for their water. Unfortunately, residents had been drinking and bathing in the contaminated water for years. The issue continued while the local government and the Department of Defense bickered over who was responsible for the cleanup.

 

In North Windham, Maine, two public wells supplying 2,000 residents had to be closed and a new water supply hooked into. A new gas station using the latest state of the art equipment contaminated the town’s well source protection area. Once the water underground is contaminated, it takes a very long time and is very costly to clean up.

 

2. Contaminated Water Supply Pipes

 

Even though the water may leave the water treatment plant clean, it still needs to travel through a network of pipes to reach our taps. Many towns and cities have a water infrastructure that could be upwards of a hundred years old. Newer parts of town may have had new pipes installed when the water supply was extended to new areas and developments, but the old main lines along the way were not. Leaks in the pipes and growth of bacteria and corrosion in the pipes contaminate water as it passes along.

 

A government-funded study on contamination in water supply pipes, the largest ever conducted on public water systems, concluded a larger risk than thought was caused by leaky and corroded old supply pipes. The pipes that bring drinking water from public wells to home taps may let in viruses that cause more than a million cases of stomach illness every year.

 

In Ranger, Texas, lead had contaminated the public water supply pipes serving the town’s population. The town hall knew about it as did state and federal agencies whose job it was to protect the people. Everyone apparently knew, except for the people being poisoned by it. The Walton family was part of the group of people who were never told their water contained 28 times the amount of lead that was considered safe by the EPA’s figures. Their son, who was two years old by the time the family found out something was wrong, had been terribly affected by the poisoned water. According to the doctor who tested him, the blood in the two-year-old had high levels of lead, which directly affects the development of the brain. According to the parents, the toddler was only able to say three words even though he was already two years old. 

 

3. Inadequate Enforcement

 

Data from the EPA shows there are about six million people getting their water from 2,000 public water systems qualifying as serious violators. The water companies have continuous, serious violations and are not complying with regulations in place to protect people using their water. Estimates are that about 99% of the water companies on the list are small utilities serving fewer than 50,000 people. Millions of people are at risk of a variety of dangers, ranging from water contaminated with toxic chemicals to bacteria-laden water causing intestinal issues and potentially severe health issues.

 

In addition, CNN reported that 5,300 water systems are violating lead and copper testing rules. Violations run from not testing properly to not reporting test results. In other words, some of these water companies are not telling the people drinking the water when a problem is found with lead and copper in it.

 

A review of water company testing by USA Today found 9,000 small water companies serving almost four million people failed to test properly for lead in the past six years. 

 

Moreover, many school districts have water safety people who are supposed to test the water for lead levels annually. Many of the districts like Klondike Independent School District in West Texas and Orange Center School in California skip testings. Some skip even though high levels of lead were previously found. School officials still let children drink the water in spite of having high lead levels.

 

In more than 2,000 communities, lead tests were skipped at least once.

 

Over 850 small water utilities who already had a documented history of lead contamination failed to properly test for that substance at least once since 2010.

 

Lead is far from the only contaminate that may be in public water. Pesticides and herbicides that go untested by the utility are frequently found when private testing is done. Industrial chemicals present in the water prior to the utility processing are found in large numbers in tap water due to the fact that so many contaminants are not tested for.

 

Sometimes, the contaminants in the water are not addressed by these companies even after they have been found. As a result, unsuspecting customers continue to use it. In a few cases, this even happens with the approval of the EPA and agencies supposedly in charge of protecting us. The public water supply company in Sanders, Arizona, was one of those small, local companies that fell off the radar of the EPA for years. Even though the water company did not test for bacteria or lead, nothing was done to enforce the law. A simple notice of violation was sent along with a non-compliance notice. All the while, trusting people were drinking the water. High levels of radioactive uranium were found in the public water supply. The contamination was most likely coming from the many mines in the area. 

 

A notification to the residents about the radiation contamination did not come for ten years after it was known by the government that the water was contaminated. In those ten years the residents continued to consume and use the poison water. Outrageously, once the public finally found out they had been drinking contaminated water for at least 10 years, the Arizona Department of Environmental quality told the residents it was all right to continue to use the water. That was despite also telling residents the radioactivity in the water was over federal safety levels for drinking water and could lead to liver and kidney damage if consumed for an extended period of time. Even with that reality, the state DEQ maintained it was fine to consume until another safe supply could be found.

 

The residents were also not told the water supply company was given over 200 notices of violation. Infuriatingly, many of those violations were never taken care of. Some of them were for high bacteria levels in the water. In essence, the residents were drinking tap water under the assumption it was safe, but it was contaminated by both radiation and bacteria.

 

It is a frightening thought to think we are drinking water that is potentially unsafe. Testing for contaminants that are potentially harmful to us but are allowed to be in tap water just seems wrong. Hundreds of contaminants are present but never detected because tests are not required even though these contaminants are just as bad, if not worse.

 

There are several steps you can take to limit the chances you are exposing yourself and family to potentially harmful contaminants:

 

The first is to use a fantastic search tool set up by the Environmental Working Group. They have compiled a database of thousands of water utilities across the country. This database houses the records of the water utility companies’ test results that were submitted to the EPA. You can look up the company serving your water district and see if there are any contaminants to be concerned about. This website will also show the levels of the dozens of other contaminants that have no enforceable safety levels or regulations that are not regulated for levels but are present and are known to be carcinogens or other risks to your health. This would give you an idea what you need to watch for in the second step.

 

With an idea of what contaminants are in your water, a test would be the least expensive way to tell what is coming out of your tap. Some municipalities will offer tests for free or a very reasonable fee. There are also many testing companies where you can physically take a sample of your water and others where you can mail it off for analysis. 

 

We absolutely do not suggest letting your water company do the testing for you. Remember, it is in their interest to make certain your water meets standards and regulations. You, on the other hand, have a vested interest in determining what exactly is in the water. An omission of a chemical on the tests or a simple change in how the sample is taken can make a huge difference in the results. Do not clear your lines by running the water for several minutes first. Instead, follow the same process you’d use when you get a drink.

 

Once you receive the test results back, you can see if there is any need to take action on your water. The red flag items are usually lead levels, any VOC contaminants, and arsenic levels. Beyond that, you can make an educated decision if you need anything additional.

 

Depending on what you find out from the lab tests, you may or may not want or need additional filtering. My collaborator and I do advise testing your water on an annual basis just in case something has moved into the groundwater and the utility either has not yet found it or does not care enough to remediate it because they don’t have to.

 

If the tests do find contamination, you’re going to want to invest in a filter. It is always a good idea to use a basic carbon filter that can remove many impurities and will usually make the water taste better. I have nothing to do with any water filter company or product. I use these because I know they help, so I am passing on the information to you.

 

Filtering your water is the single most effective way to prevent using and consuming contaminated water. There are many types of filters on the market, ranging from single tap filters for drinking water to whole house filters for bathing and washing in addition to drinking.

 

At the same time, use your critical reasoning.  The water filter industry has spent millions to convince us our tap water would be better when using their pitcher filter or water system. Some of their claims are not always entirely true, but our tap water is in more cases contaminated than it is not. Given that reality, filters have a critical place in ensuring that the water you and your family drink is safe.

 

This chapter is not a wholesale condemnation of the public water supply in America. Instead, the goal is to highlight the shortcomings of it. There is a failure in the oversight and enforcement of the water companies charged with providing clean and safe water to millions of Americans. We can’t depend on our water being safe; we need to ensure that for ourselves.