by Henry Brean, originally posted on June 13, 2016

Never mind the usual pinch of uranium, touch of copper and dash of lead. The community’s drinking water remains as clean as it needs to be under federal safety regulations, according to an annual report released Monday by Las Vegas Valley Water District.

Though local tap water does contain trace amounts of some heavy metals, radioactive minerals and other regulated contaminants, it meets or exceeds all state and federal standards for safe drinking water.

This year’s water quality report includes a special section on lead, which was added to soothe public anxiety in the wake of the contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, and a minor scare over lead-tainted water at the public school and community center in Goodsprings.

“Southern Nevada’s water infrastructure does not employ lead-based components, and local water providers maintain robust corrosion-control programs developed in coordination with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection,” the report states.

Those corrosion-control efforts extend the life of water infrastructure and help keep heavy metals from leaching from your tap.

The report’s findings are based on nearly 333,000 tests on roughly 33,000 water samples collected by the water district and its wholesale supplier, the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

In addition, water is continually monitored for contaminants throughout the distribution system.

The new report only covers the water district and its roughly 1 million customers, but all valley utilities get their water from the same primary source: the Colorado River by way of Lake Mead.

The Las Vegas Valley boasts some of the “hardest” water in the country, thanks to the high mineral content of the notoriously silt-laden river.

Before arriving at the tap, drinking water goes through one of two water treatment plants at the eastern edge of the community. Many of the regulated contaminants commonly found in local tap water are byproducts of the treatment process.

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires utilities nationwide to report their water quality test results once a year.

The district’s 2016 water quality report is available online at lvvwd.com, as are separate reports for the water systems serving Searchlight, Kyle Canyon, Blue Diamond, Laughlin and Jean.

by Lauren FitzPatrick and Jacob Wittich, originally posted on June 13, 2016

As Chicago Public Schools continues to test drinking water for lead, 19 schools — about 25 percent of those with available results — have been found with problematic lead levels.

With results now available from 74 elementary schools, CPS announced Monday that water at five more schools tested above Environmental Protection Agency action levels of 15 parts per billion.

Perhaps most troubling was lead in a drinking fountain and three sinks at Blair Early Childhood Center, 6751 W 63rd Pl., which serves
children in grades pre-K through 2nd grade with physical and cognitive problems. During some rounds of testing, water at the special education school had lead present at hundreds of particles per billion. Exposure to lead has been linked to cognitive development problems in young children.

Four drinking fountains at Wentworth Elementary School, 1340 W. 71st
St., also have been shut down as a result, CPS said. Chappell, 2135 W. Foster Ave., and Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, 4420 S. Sacramento
Ave., each had high lead levels in a kitchen sink, and Durkin Park
Elementary School, 8445 S. Kolin Ave. also had a problematic sink.

The district says it hired two private companies to test “out of an abundance of caution” in the wake of the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, but the rate of schools with lead in their water has risen from about one in five last week to about one in four.

Aldermen from the Progressive Reform Caucus met at City Hall on Monday morning to call for City Council hearings. They said they would introduce a nonbinding resolution at neat week’s Council meeting.

“In 2016 it is unacceptable that we’ve reached the risk of putting our children in harm’s way just by sending them to school,” Caucus leader Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) said. “Lead shouldn’t be in our vocabulary in this day and age. We know how to get rid of it, we know how to test for it and we know how to keep our kids safe from it.”

CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner responded in a statement, “If City Council would like to hold hearings to learn more about the program, CPS officials would be happy to join the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Water Management to testify about our efforts to test the water of every school in the district for lead, as well as our plans to resolve issues where they are found.”

The district says about 4 percent of fixtures tested have come back with a sample above the EPA’s action level — or 41 out of 1,007.

The district promised to test 324 schools by early next week when classes end. It has prioritized those buildings most at risk because they have a pre-K program, are in structures built before 1986 and have cooking kitchens. About 224 have been completed; eventually all schools will be tested.

The problem fixtures have been shut off, Bittner said, and parents at each of the schools have been notified. CPS is developing plans to fix the problems.

Reilly Elementary School, previously announced to have very high levels of lead in water fountains and kindergarten sinks, will be retested Tuesday to see whether plumbing fixes have worked. Meanwhile, water coolers are being provided while the fixtures are shut off.

Taliaferro said he hopes that CPS officials, public health experts, parents and others will be able to join the proposed public hearing to testify for new legislation to address issues of lead contamination in the city’s water.

“This isn’t just a Chicago issue, it’s a national issue, and we are looking for the federal government to come to the table as well as the state and the City of Chicago water department to address the City Council and discuss the issues that are facing Chicagoans,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd).

Taliaferro added that parents should speak to their children’s principals about ensuring every district school has its water tested and he thinks most, if not all schools should have their water tested before school resumes in the fall.

John Kugler, a Chicago Teachers Union field representative, said the union filed a grievance regarding the water testing on May 2 with CPS but the district has yet to officially respond. The grievance demands information about the district’s water testing; training for employees on how to identify safety hazards within the workplace; how to protect children from lead contamination; and testing for CPS staff members who also drink the schools’ water.

CTU officer Michael Brunson urged aldermen and community members to get involved in the city’s water testing for the safety of CPS students. He said he knows from teaching that one of kids’ favorite pastimes in school is to take a break and drink water, so it is important that the water they are drinking is safe.

“We have to make sure [students] are in a safe environment and the water must be safe because it does not take very much lead to damage a child for life,” Brunson said.

by Abhilash Botekar, originally posted on June 13, 2016

Nashik: The people of Nashik are quenching their thirst with water, nearly half of which is unfit for drinking.

Tests by the regional water testing laboratory of the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency here in 2015-16 have revealed that about 46% of the drinking water sources in Nashik taluka do not supply potable water.

The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) covers most areas in the taluka, barring a few villages where the rural administration has to pitch in. The sub-divisional laboratories at various places, functioning under the Regional Water Testing Laboratory, Nashik, inspect water for chemical and bacteriological contamination in the rural areas, barring the belts where water is supplied by municipal corporations, municipal councils or the regional supply schemes.

In all villages, the main source of is groundwater. The test on water for biological impurities is carried out to understand the nature of water supplied to the villagers for drinking.

“As many as 101 samples from the taluka were tested and 46 failed to clear the bacteriological tests. This is very high, considering the number of samples tested. The results were sent to the respective local self-governing bodies and they were expected to take action on the water supply bodies,” a senior GSDA official said.

by Dan Sokil, originally posted on June 12, 2016

Local lawmakers are continuing their calls for government action to clean up contaminated water near two former military bases.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a resolution sponsored by three local lawmakers urging the federal government to address the ongoing water and health problems in Horsham, Warminster and Warrington.

“I am especially concerned that the EPA knowingly allowed water it deemed unsafe for infants to flow into our homes for more than a year,” said state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151.

Stephens and fellow Reps. Kathy Watson, R-144, and Bernie O’Neill, R-29, all cosponsored House Resolution 916, which directs the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense to find the extent of contamination, provide complete remediation, fully evaluate the local health consequences and monitor residents and military personnel who may have been exposed to water contamination.

“Residents have many questions regarding these chemicals, how widely they were used at these federal facilities and how their health may be adversely affected,” Watson said in a statement.

“These residents, many who have lived in the area for a long time and raised their families here, deserve to know what’s going on and what’s going to be done to address their concerns,” she said.

O’Neill said he has received many calls from constituents trying to find out what has happened and what can be done to prevent it in the future and said he has been working closely with the Navy and the Warminster Water Authority to find answers.

“In order to improve and protect our quality of life, our communities must be assured of a safe and reliable water supply,” O’Neill said.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-13, issued a call this week for a formal congressional hearing to investigate groundwater contamination at bases across the country, including in Horsham and Warminster.

“Concern among Horsham’s residents has significantly increased since the EPA tightened its health advisory guideline for these contaminants in our drinking water. A growing body of studies links these contaminants to various forms of cancer, thyroid disease and other health complications,” said Boyle in a statement issued Monday.

“While I appreciate the EPA’s heightened scrutiny of these contaminants and the Navy’s commitment to monitoring wells and taking implicated wells offline, I believe officials have thus far failed to present adequate information to the public regarding the latest science and known health risks posed to our community. That is why I am calling for a congressional hearing,” he said.

In recent months, Boyle and several other local lawmakers have asked the Navy to provide more information about water issues surrounding detected levels of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), both found near both bases, and in April, the lawmakers called on EPA to issue stricter lifetime health advisory standards, a step it took in May.

“The Department of Defense has an annual budget of approximately $2.5 billion taxpayer dollars to remediate health and environmental threats such as those posed by PFOS and PFOA contamination for which it is responsible, in my district and nationwide,” Boyle said.

“However, despite the serious health risks posed by prolonged exposure to and accumulation of PFOS and PFOA in potable water sources on these sites, the response has lacked the urgency I believe is necessary to address this public health threat. These investigation and clean-up efforts are seriously undermined by a lack of urgency on the part of the DOD.”

Stephens issued a similar call Tuesday and has created an online petition for Horsham residents to sign asking for EPA action.

“I’ve been fighting to force the federal government to fulfill their obligations to residents of Horsham Township who have been told twice in two years that the public water they have been consuming contained unsafe levels of contaminants that have been linked to several health conditions including cancer,” Stephens said in a June 7 statement.

“While Horsham’s public drinking water is now well below the EPA’s new guidelines, after two years, the public water continues to contain low levels of these contaminants,” he said.

As a lifelong resident of Horsham Township, Stephens said, he has asked fellow lawmakers including Boyle to help seek carbon filters for all public wells, blood testing for those affected and a health study to better understand health risks to residents.

“Rest assured I will continue doing everything in my power to ensure we receive the protections, services and information we deserve,” he said.

originally posted on June 8, 2016

FLINT, Mich. –  Flint’s lead-contaminated water crisis has affected all of the city’s nearly 100,000 residents, but some grapple with an extra challenge: a language barrier.

Advocates for Latino residents say some who speak little or no English didn’t learn about the water problems — or need for filters — for months after the problems became known. Some residents in the country illegally are afraid to provide personal information in exchange for water or help lest they be deported or questioned by law enforcement officials.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church north of the city started distributing water and filters. They developed bilingual information with government officials.

Local immigration attorney Victoria Arteaga sees improvements but says more must be done to ease concerns and meet needs of residents who lack legal status.

Emails obtained by NBC 7 under the California Public Records Act show that the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) knew seven weeks ago that water at a local elementary school had high levels of contaminants in it.
Documents show a consulting firm the district hired to test the water at the Emerson-Bandini campus found contamination and provided those results to San Diego Unified in February.
NBC 7 filed records request on Feb. 28 with every water agency in the county for communications between water providers and school districts regarding water quality tests at schools, and any action taken as a result of those tests.
So far, these documents are the first to show communications between area school districts and public utilities about any water contamination discovered.
(Published Wednesday, March 29, 2017) Now, emails obtained by NBC 7 show the school district was informed of lab results on Feb. 9 and again on Feb. 21 that the water at the school in Southcrest was contaminated with various chemicals.
Toxic levels of lead have also been discovered in the water there.
On March 2, nearly a month after the first lab results were obtained by the district showing contaminated water, NBC 7 visited Emerson-Bandini Elementary School on Newton Avenue.
A spokeswoman said the school district began providing bottled water to Emerson-Bandini Elementary School on Jan. 26.
It’s like your water heater breaking at home – first you mitigate the immediate problem (cut off drinking from the fountains and provide bottled water), and then you start looking into what the source of the problem was (the investigations that followed and that the report refers to),” the spokeswoman explained via email.
She said the nurse’s observation referred to in the emails came after the water issues at the school had been reported, and after the bottled water had been distributed on campus.

originally posted on April 3, 2015

The federal government does not have an obligation to provide clean drinking water to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday.

The water supply on the reservation contains arsenic levels that exceed limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The tribe accused the government of violating its trust duties by failing to fix the system but a judge with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rejected the claim.

On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal. A three-judge panel said U.S. Supreme Court precedent requires the tribe to cite laws or regulations that imposed an obligation on its trustee.

“We understand that water quality on parts of the Hopi Reservation is unacceptable, due in part to insufficient funds for new water infrastructure,” Judge Todd Michael Hughes wrote for the majority. “But the Supreme Court’s decisions are controlling in this case. Because the Hopi Tribe has not identified a money-mandating obligation that the United States allegedly violated, we must affirm the Court of Federal Claims’ dismissal of this suit for lack of jurisdiction under the Indian Tucker Act.

“The tribe could ask the Federal Circuit to rehear the case or it could take the matter to the Supreme Court. The justices, as recently as 2011, confirmed that Indian beneficiaries are at the whims of their trustee when they try to seek accountability.

“Throughout the history of the Indian trust relationship, we have recognized that the organization and management of the trust is a sovereign function subject to the plenary authority of Congress,” the high court wrote in US v. Jicarilla Apache Nation.Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Hopi Tribe v. US.

By Lance Duroni, originally posted on April 2, 2015

Law360, Chicago (April 2, 2015, 4:31 PM EDT) — The Federal Circuit on Thursday shot down the Hopi Tribe’s bid to force the U.S. government to pay for clean drinking water on its Arizona reservation, ruling that the government doesn’t have a fiduciary duty to safeguard water quality there.
Upholding a Court of Federal Claims decision dismissing the case, the three-judge panel said the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the suit because the Hopi couldn’t point to a law or regulation demanding that the U.S. provide adequate drinking water and which could be used as a basis for money damages.

“Because the Court of Federal Claims properly concluded that the Hopi Tribe failed to identify any source for a money-mandating obligation, we affirm,” U.S. Circuit Judge Todd M. Hughes wrote for the court.

The Hopi sued the U.S. in 2012, alleging five villages on the reservation draw their water from wells that are plagued by arsenic levels far above maximum federal limits. The suit sought  damages to cover the cost of supplying alternative drinking water to the five communities, noting that the government had funded and helped build many of the tainted wells at issue.

A federal judge tossed the suit a year later, ruling that the Hopi had failed to establish jurisdiction under the Indian Tucker Act.

On appeal, the tribe pointed to the 1882 executive order establishing its reservation and a 1958 law ratifying the order as proof of the government’s duty to ensure safe drinking water.

But in Thursday’s decision, the panel noted that neither of the two mentions drinking water on the reservation, “much less instructs the United States to manage drinking water quality.”

originally posted on March 18, 2015

In June of 1964, helicopters from the U.S. Geological Survey began spraying an herbicidal chemical along the Gila and San Carlos rivers. The chemical herbicide was used to remove salt cedars along the rivers so that water runoff from the rain would be maximized for commercial and industrial water use in lakes, rivers and streams. Salt cedar, an invasive plant species, was brought to the area from the Mediterrean and African regions. It grows along waterways and uses a lot of water in order to maintain its life.

This odorless herbicide’s scientific names are 2-4-5-TP or 2-4-5 D, but it’s commonly known as Agent Orange, one of the worst chemicals ever known to mankind. The herbicide was used to spray salt cedar on the San Carlos River and indigenous peoples in other parts of the world.

It was popularized during the Vietnam War when the United States sprayed this chemical on the high canopy tree stands of the Vietnamese forests to kill vegetation. Even U.S. veterans were victimized by this chemical, and to this day, those who had contact with Agent Orange have become sick with many types of diseases and cancers that were unknown prior to the creation of this dangerous chemical. Diseases associated with Agent Orange contamination include Type 2 diabetes, liver and heart disease, birth defects (two row teeth, cleft pallet) spina bifida, neuropathy, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, Alzheimer’s disease, and many others.

In 1969, areas near Kellner Canyon and Ice House Canyon near the Pinal Mountains were also sprayed for five years, and the San Carlos and Gila Rivers were contaminated. After the spraying in the off-reservation town of Globe, residents who were contaminated sued Dow Chemical, the makers of the Agent Orange, and the government of the United States. The case, Shoecraft V. Dow Chemical, went before the U.S. District in Phoenix and was settled out of court in the early 1980s. On the other hand, San Carlos Apache tribal members have yet to receive redress of their grievances, harm to health, and deaths that have been perpetuated by this witches brew.
Who are the makers of such witches brew and what it does?

BALTIMORE –Baltimore City Public School System CEO Dr. Andrés Alonso announced a system-wide shift to bottled drinking water for students, teachers, staff, and visitors today. The shift is expected to be completed by Friday, November 9. The re-evaluation of the overall policy was prompted by new testing that found several water fountains that had passed previous tests for lead and were permitted to return to use had subsequently failed.

“Parents, students, and teachers prefer the bottled water,” said Dr. Alonso. “Maintenance of the existing water fountains is not worth the expense and concern. It is more cost effective to provide bottled water than to continue to flush, test, and review hundreds of water fountains across the school system each year.”

Recent random testing by the health department found lead levels in water fountains to be much improved from 2003 when all the fountains across the system were shut down. However, despite the school system’s best efforts to maintain the water fountains and to make them fully operational, a small percentage failed to meet the cutoff levels.

The Baltimore City Health Department collected samples of water from working fountains in 10 randomly selected schools, all of which also offered bottled water to students. The laboratory of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene performed the tests.

Of 84 working fountains tested at all 10 schools, 74 had levels of lead below the cutoff level of 20 parts per billion. However, 10 fountains had levels above the cutoff level. The fountains were immediately shut off.

“What concerned us was that the fountains that failed this time around all had previously passed tests, and all had replacement parts,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, Commissioner of Health. “Since our goal is 100 percent confidence, the best approach is to switch to bottled drinking water.”

“We don’t want water fountains to be a distraction to the teaching and learning taking place in the classroom,” said Dr. Alonso. “We want to make sure our children, teachers, and staff have clean water to drink so we can concentrate on education.”

A financial review showed that the cost of bottled drinking water for the school system is expected to be approximately $675,000 per year. By comparison, the school system is paying approximately $350,000 for bottled water in schools without adequate numbers of working fountains, $275,000 for staff and consultants to oversee the testing program, and $50,000 for laboratory analysis. In addition, hundreds of custodians spend time flushing each water fountain every day, and many other school system and health department employees are involved in reviewing and approving results.

In the future, exceptions may be granted on a school-by-school basis, such as for schools that have entirely new piping and fixtures.

Summary of Health Department Testing Results

The Health Department conducted testing at all available working fountains at 10 randomly selected schools in October 2007. The testing was performed by the laboratory of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. All 10 schools had at least some bottled water available on site.

• Of 84 drinking fountains tested, the water in 74 fountains (88%) passed the test, with lead levels less than 20 parts per billion.
• In 10 fountains (12%) located in four schools, the water failed the test, with the lead content exceeding 20 parts per billion of lead. Five of these fountains had lead levels exceeding 100 parts per billion, with the highest at 655 parts per billion of lead.
• Fountains that tested high for lead were immediately shut off.
• The four schools with at least one fountain that failed the test already had a total of 54 water coolers with bottled drinking in use. An additional 15 coolers were delivered.

Overall, the results were much improved from several years ago. At these 10 schools, after the systemwide shutdown in 2003, 69 fountains had tested high for lead and had never been turned back on.

It is not immediately clear why the 10 fountains tested high for lead. All 10 fountains had replacement parts. All had previously passed the test, under conditions designed to elicit the highest possible results. Eight of the fountains had failed the lead test at some point in the past, followed by normal tests. Two of the 10 fountains had passed all tests since the 2003 shutdown.

• According to experts consulted by the Health Department, one possibility is that even when fountains have been fixed, there can still be problems upstream, such as in the pipes.

Based on the results, and the high cost of further evaluating and remediating the water fountains of the school system, the Health Department recommended a system-wide switch to bottled drinking water. Exemptions in the future could be considered on a school-by-school basis.

• Schools tested without high lead levels: Hampden Elementary (6 pass), Lombard Middle (16 pass), Gardenville Elementary (3 pass), Canton Middle (6 pass), Cross Country Elementary (7 pass), Patterson High (18 pass).
• Schools tested with at least one fountain with high lead level: Northwood Elementary (3 pass, 41, 87), Douglas High School (5 pass, 280, 655), Baltimore City College (1 pass, 267, 410), Carver High School (9 pass, 31, 47, 75, 142).