Transcript Powerpoint

Why we should be worried about our water
Lily Clark
ENVR 230
November 6, 2007
Drinking Water in the U.S.:
Overview
 Overall, water quality has improved over the last 15 years,
according to a report done by the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC)
 Quality of tap water varies greatly from city to city
 Most cities have good or mediocre water quality
 NRDC estimates that 50 million Americans drink water
that is below the standards for water quality set by the EPA
(1996)
 CDC estimates that half of the country’s water treatment
systems fail to remove the parasite that killed 100 people in
Milwaukee in 1993 (1996)
 Contaminants enter water in many ways, such as through
runoff from sewage systems, runoff from roads and farms,
and dumping of industrial waste
Regulation
 EPA has National Primary Drinking Water Regulations
(NPDWRs) to enforce standards for public water systems
 Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 and Safe Drinking Water
Act (SDWA) of 1974 passed “to restore and maintain the
chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s
waters”
 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 introduced
new prevention approaches, changes in regulation, increased
funding to state and local governments and improved
consumer information
 CDC performs and funds research and helps disseminate
information regarding safe drinking water
Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs)
 Microorganisms
 Cryptosporidium
 Giardia
 Legionella
 Coliforms (including E. coli)
 Turbidity
 Enteric viruses
 Disinfectants – chlorine and chloramines
 Disinfection by-products – chlorite, haloacetic acids,
trihalomethanes
 Inorganic chemicals – arsenic, cyanide, fluoride, lead, mercury
 Organic chemicals – atrazine, carbon tetrachloride, TCDD, PCBs
 Radionuclides
Problems with Regulation
 Report by the General Accounting Office in 1993 found that
“most state inspection programs to ensure the safety of
public water supplies are a shambles”
 State public health departments responsible for monitoring
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and reporting to the EPA on water quality
However, many state inspection programs are under funded
and are thus unable to test the water every three years, as
recommended by the EPA
Deficiencies often went unidentified and uncorrected due to
bad record-keeping
Less than half of the inspectors nationwide had been formally
trained
Lapse in regulation seen in DC lead contamination and the
disease outbreak in Milwaukee
Health Effects
 Lead
 Permanent brain damage and decreased intellectual
ability in infants and children
 Trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids
 Cancer and reproductive problems, including
miscarriage
 All possible health effects especially dangerous for
those with a compromised immune system
 Pregnant women, infants, children, elderly, HIV/AIDS
patients, chemotherapy and cancer patients
Health Effects of Waterborne
Pathogens
 Especially dangerous for the immuno-compromised
(HIV/AIDS, the elderly, children, chemo patients)
 Cause diarrhea and acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI)
 Currently estimated 4.26 – 11.69 million cases of AGI
annually
 Due to drinking water from community drinking water
systems supplied by surface and groundwater sources
 However, most of the microbes that have caused
outbreaks of waterborne diarrheal illnesses in the U.S.
and their sources are unidentified
Threats to Water Quality
 Reliance on pipes that are 100 years old, on average
 Problems with breakage
 Leach contaminants and allow bacteria to breed
 Reliance on outdated water treatment techniques
 Regulatory efforts by the Bush administration
 Weaken regulation on source waters
 Stall the creation of new standards for contaminants
 Cut funding and environmental programs
How the Bush Administration’s Policies
Threaten Our Drinking Water
 Bush administration policies in 2003 supported reducing the
protection of our water sources and our drinking water
 Specifically, proposed scalebacks would have removed protection
for headwaters, wetlands, seasonal streams and other water
sources
 Policy would exempt protections on “isolated” waters
 These exemptions would have affected directly the drinking water
sources for 15 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, D.C. and
Seattle
 Policy rejected in 2006
 In 2006, the Bush administration declared that federal workers
would not be protected under whistleblower protection for
reporting “water enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of
science, or cleanup failures”
 Threatens the integrity of the CWA and SDWA by removing
protection from federal employees who attempt to uncover and
report honestly the state of our water quality
What’s On Tap: Grading Drinking
Water in U.S. Cities
 The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a 2003
report on the quality of drinking water in 19 states
City
Water Quality &
Compliance
Right To Know
Source Water
Protection
Albuquerque
Poor
Good
Poor
Atlanta
Fair
Fair
Poor
Baltimore
Good
Good
Fair
Boston
Poor
Poor
Good
Chicago
Excellent
Good
Fair
Denver
Good
Good
Good
Detroit
Good
Good
Poor
Fresno
Poor
Poor
Failing
Houston
Fair
Fair
Poor
Los Angeles
Fair
Good
Poor (import)
Fair (local)
Manchester
Good
Good
Good
New Orleans
Good
Good
Poor
Newark
Fair
Failing
Fair
Philadelphia
Fair
Good
Poor
Phoenix
Poor
Failing
Poor
San Diego
Fair
Fair
Poor (import)
Fair (local)
San Francisco
Poor
Fair
Good
Seattle
Fair
Fair
Excellent
Washington, D.C.
Fair
Fair
Fair
Process of Water Treatment
 Coagulation – addition of aluminum sulfate to make large particles of
solids stick together
 Perchlorination (optional) – addition of chlorine or other oxidant to
start disinfection and oxidation of chemicals
 If added at this early stage, can greatly increase levels of by-products
 Sedimentation – water mixed and left to sit to allow coagulant to take
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effect
Filtration – run water through filters of sand or coal to remove smaller
particles (unable to remove arsenic, pesticides and other chemicals)
Primary chemical disinfection – usually chlorine gas or liquid
Corrosion inhibitor – lime or zinc orthophosphate to inhibit ability of
water to corrode city and household piping
Fluoride and secondary disinfection – second dose of infectant to
prevent recontamination
Waterborne Pathogens
 Vegetative bacteria and other microorganisms are killed by
disinfection process of water treatment
 Cryptosporidium and Giardia are relatively resistant to
disinfection process
 Many waterborne parasites are resistant to chlorination
 Filtration removes these parasites, however many treatment
facilities have broken and failing filtration systems
 Acute gastroenteritis illness (AGI) is most common health
problem associated with consumption of water
contaminated with microbes
 Associations between water turbidity and AGI have been
found in citywide studies performed in Milwaukee and
Philadelphia
 AGI rates in the US can be used to estimate the risk of
infectious, waterborne diseases
Waterborne Disease Outbreaks
(WBDOs)
 Outbreak statistics do not accurately reflect the incidences of
waterborne illness due to endemic contamination
 There is no surveillance system to report the incidences of endemic
waterborne illness, specifically AGI, in the US
 Reported occurrences of WBDOs are only a fraction of the actual
occurrences of AGI because endemic illnesses are not included
 WBDO statistics have been recorded since the 1920s through
local, state and national public health departments
 Useful to identify risks of disease associated with source waters,
public water systems and treatments
 Also provide information about the important waterborne
pathogens and adequacy of contamination regulations
Disease Outbreaks
 Waterborne pathogens are increasing as a cause of
waterborne disease outbreaks in the U.S.
 Between 1991 and 2002
 403,000 people got sick
 4,400 were hospitalized
 50 died
 Mortality associated with WBDOs decreased from 1920 to
1990 but has risen in the last 12 years
 The percentage of WBDOs associated with contaminants
in the public water systems have increased since 1991
 Outbreak tracking does not take into account rates of
endemic waterborne diseases, which can be caused by the
same pathogens
Taken from Craun et al. “Waterborne outbreaks reported in the United States.” Journal of
Water and Health. 2006.
Etiology of waterborne outbreaks reported in the U.S., 1991 –
2002
Etiological agent
Outbreaks
Cases
AGI
77
16,036
Chemical
33
577
Giardia
25
2,283
Cryptosporidium
15
408,371
Norovirus
12
3,361
E. coli O157:H7
11
288
Shigella
9
663
Campylobacter jejuni
7
360
Legionella
6
80
Salmonella
3
833
V. cholerae
2
114
Hepatitis A
2
56
Naegleria fowleri
1
2
Plesiomonas shigelloides
1
60
Campylobacter and Yersinia
1
12
E. coli O157:H7 & Campylobacter
1
781
Unidentified SRSV
1
70
Total
207
433,947
Taken from M. F. Craun et al. “Waterborne outbreaks reported in the United States.” Journal of Water and Health. 04.Suppl
2. 2006.
Milwaukee, 1993
 400,000 people got sick and 100 died from
contaminated water
 Cryptosporidium was the parasite found in the water
 Caused death mostly in immuno-compromised
populations, specifically those with HIV/AIDS
New York, 1999
 1,000 people got sick at a county fair in upstate New
York
 The water was contaminated with a virulent strain of
E. coli
 Resulted in the death of one elderly man and one 3year old girl
New York, 2005
 Nearly 750 people got sick from a contaminated play
area in a water park
 The water was found to be contaminated with
cryptosporidium
 The tank from which the water park drew its water had
a chlorination and a filtration system
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
2005 Report on CWA Compliance
 3600, or 57%, of the nation’s water treatment facilities
exceeded limits set by the CWA at least once in 2005
 Noncompliant facilities reported 24,400 cases of exceeding
CWA permits
 Indicates that facilities are exceeding their permits more than
once, and for more than one pollutant
 628 facilities exceeded their permit limits for at least half of
the monthly reporting periods in 2005
 On average, noncompliant facilities exceeded permit limits
by four times the allowed amount
 On 1800 occasions, facilities reported exceeding the limits
by at least six-fold
Recommended Actions by the Natural
Resources Defense Council
 Investment in upgrading water systems
 Pipe breaks
 Allow in bacteria and contaminants
 Estimated $500 billion over the next two decades to ensure
the safety of drinking water nationwide
 Upgrading of water treatment techniques
 Currently use same basic water treatment technologies from
before WWI
 New technologies available – ozone, UV light treatment,
membrane treatment, granulated activated carbon
 Use a combination of two or more to maximize efficiency and
minimize by-products of treatment
 Strengthen and enforce existing health standards and
create new standards for unregulated contaminants
Sources
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EPA
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CDC
Healthy Drinking Water: http://www.cdc.gov/Ncidod/dpd/healthywater/index.htm
“Surveillance for Waterborne-Disease Outbreaks --- United States, 1999-2000”:
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5108a1.htm
Natural Resources Defense Council
 “Study Finds Safety of Drinking Water in U.S. Cities at Risk”: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities.asp
 “What’s on Tap? Grading Drinking Water in U.S. Cities”: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/contents.asp
 “Limiting Clean Water Act Protection Could Contaminate Drinking Water”:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressReleases/030611a.asp
 “Clean Water at Risk”: http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/cwa30/contents.asp
CNN
 “Milwaukee learned its water lesson, but many other cities haven’t”:
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9609/02/nfm/water.quality/
 “1,800 infected; water park blamed”: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/19/water.illness/index.html
New York Times
 “Outbreak of Disease in Milwaukee Undercuts Confidence in Water”:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6D9143EF933A15757C0A965958260
 “Nearly 750 Are Sickened at State Park”: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/nyregion/19sick.html
New York Department of Health
 http://www.health.state.ny.us/press/releases/2000/ecoli.htm
US PIRG
 “Troubled Waters: An analysis of 2005 Clean Water Act compliance”: http://static.uspirg.org/reports.asp?id2=35946
Stormwater Authority: http://www.stormwaterauthority.org/library/view_article.aspx?id=633
Earthjustice:
http://www.earthjustice.org/our_work/policy/2004/bush_administration_launches_effort_to_dismantle_clean_water_act.html
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Office of Water: http://www.epa.gov/OW/
Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory: http://www.epa.gov/nheerl/articles/2006/waterborne_disease.html
“Clinton Administration works to help protect the public health from recent infectious disease outbreaks.”:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/a21708abb48b5a9785257359003f0231/52a4c3f2c4d50b31852567ee00661941!OpenDoc
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