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General

Book coverDeveloped by The Groundwater Foundation, Protecting Our Water: A Primer for Preventing Pathogenic Contamination of Drinking Water Sources, describes how pathogens get into drinking water, how to identify and monitor land use for potential sources of pathogens, and how to prevent pathogenic contamination of drinking water sources.  The primer includes six case studies that describe how communities can take action to reduce pathogenic threats to their source water.

Protecting Vulnerable People from Drinking Water Contamination Disease and Illnesses, 4 pages

Sierra Club Report: Keeping Our Nation's Public Drinking Water Safe - Why Americans' Drinking Water Sources are at Risk May 2007, 16 pgs.

For Healthcare Professionals: Human Health Impacts of Water Pollution
New Water Pollution Chapter Added to Physician Website The "Physician On-Line Reference Guide to Recognizing Waterborne Disease and the Health Effects of Water Pollution" is now available at www.waterhealthconnection.org . Through a $998,520 grant, the Water Protection Task Force in EPA's Office of Water is supporting the website to help healthcare providers recognize and manage waterborne disease and the health effects of water pollution resulting from both natural and intentional contamination of water. A new chapter -- a repository of physician anti-terrorism preparedness resources -- was recently added. The grant to Arnot Ogden Medical Center also provides for continuing medical education credits, as well as outreach and training, for medical practitioners on the website. For more information, please contact Patricia Minami at 202-564-4654.

Banking on The Future  (a 69 page booklet)
This report uses Pennsylvania as a case-study of the challenges and opportunities facing water managers in the U.S.

Taxpayers for Common SenseTaxpayers for Common Sense's Water Infrastructure campaign promotes smart, cost-effective measures for dealing with our water infrastructure crisis. TCS seeks the more widespread use of "smart water strategies": fiscally responsible investments in our water system that emphasize non-structural approaches and coordinated management at the watershed level. For hard copies of the report, contact Evan Berger at evan@taxpayer.net. Chapters include:

  • Smart Water StrategyFacts about the Water CrisisDirections for the Road less Traveled...Drinking WaterThe ABC's of Water Servies RegulationMaking Sense of Water Services FundingCase Studies of Water Resources Management Structures in Southeast Pennsyvania (includes Chester County, Darby-Cobbs Watershed Partnership, Other PWD partnerships, DRBC, etc.)
  • A New Approach

They also provide several  Water Infrastructure Factsheets about State Revolving Funds, Smart Water Strategies, and Case Studies in Watershed Management, etc.  at http://www.taxpayer.net/waterinfrastructure/factsheets.htm

Taxpayers for Common Sense,
631 Pennsylvania Avenue. S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Phone: (202) 546-8500   Website : www.taxpayer.net

Arsenic

EPA has released a set of user-friendly multimedia products to help small drinking-water utilities meet revised regulations to control arsenic. The tools will provide owners and operators with information to guide them in making treatment decisions.

The anchor product of this suite of tools is the Arsenic Virtual Trade Show, a learning portal for arsenic-treatment technology. The website features a database of vendors, a treatment "decision tree," and tips for evaluating and selecting treatment providers. Other products being released include:

  • A brochure, Evaluating Arsenic Treatment Providers: A Guide for Public Water Systems, which includes a checklist of questions that owners and operators of small utilities should ask treatment providers.

  • A CD-ROM disk, Interactive Workshop on Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water, features commentary from the nation's top experts. The disk is a companion to 11 arsenic-training events EPA held across the country during 2005.

  • A DVD collection of videos, the Arsenic Treatment Technology Showcase, which highlights arsenic treatment technologies currently being pilot-tested through EPA's Arsenic Treatment Technology Demonstration Program.

EPA has also updated its web site to improve navigation and reflect the latest consumer and technical information. Kits including all of the new arsenic tools will be delivered to EPA's state and technical assistance partners for distribution to public water systems affected by the arsenic regulation.

In 2001, EPA revised the regulation for arsenic in drinking water to lower the maximum allowable level from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. The new standard becomes effective on Jan. 23, 2006. The Agency estimates that more than 90 percent of the systems affected by the revised rule are small, serving populations of 3,300 or fewer.

To launch the Arsenic Virtual Trade Show, go to: http://www.arsenictradeshow.org
More information about arsenic and drinking water is at: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic

Prevalence of Chronic Diseases in Adults Exposed to Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water

Inorganic arsenic is naturally occurring in groundwaters throughout the United States. This study investigated arsenic exposure and self-report of 9 chronic diseases. We received private well-water samples and questionnaires from 1185 people who reported drinking their water for 20 or more years. Respondents with arsenic levels of 2 µg/L or greater were statistically more likely to report a history of depression, high blood pressure, circulatory problems, and bypass surgery than were respondents with arsenic concentrations less than 2 µg/L

Report was produced by Kristina M. Zierold is with the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Lynda Knobeloch and Henry Anderson are with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental Health, Madison.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Kristina M. Zierold, PhD, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, 800 Sumter St, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (e-mail: zierold@gwm.sc.edu).

 

.Emerging Contaminants

United States Geologic Survey has created a new website to focus on emerging water-quality issues that will be used to design and improve water-quality monitoring and assessment programs of the USGS and others, and for proactive decision-making by industry, regulators, the research community, and the public. For many contaminants, public health experts have incomplete understandings of their toxicological significance (particularly effects of long-term exposures at low-levels). The need to understand the processes controlling contaminant transport and fate in the environment, and the lack of knowledge of the significance of long-term exposures has increased the need to study environmental occurrence down to trace levels. Furthermore, the possibility that environmental contaminants may interact synergistically or antagonistically has increased the need to define the complex mixtures of chemicals that are found in our waters.

"Emerging" Contaminants in U.S. Water Supplies  Part 1 - A new kind of pollution? By Roland Wall, Science Writer, Environmental Associates

Not your father's polluters: The innocuous items pictured to the left all have the potential to end up in the water supply.

 

 

 

 

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