originally posted on July 13, 2016

 

NAN — Water supplies for household use and drinking and stocks of fish across this northern province have been contaminated by agricultural chemicals used excessively in insect and weed control on maize farms, a Naresuan University research has found.

D Matsalesam residents in Andhra Pradesh bear the brunt of contaminated water.
RWS authorities have already certified that the water of as many as 15 out of the total 21 tubewells in the village is not fit for drinking.
During a recent survey, the health officials found as many as 47 chronic kidney ailment cases, 26 thyroid, 40 hepatitis and seven cancer cases in the village.
They had lodged a complaint at the Grievance Cell in the collectorate, alleging that the company was releasing its waste directly into the sea through a canal passing through the village, contaminating the ground water.
“We conducted a random survey in five villages in D Matsalesam panchyat and identified around 30 pyelonephritis cases, 30 kidney diseases, 20 Hepatitis B cases, 50 diabetes and general ailments in many households,” said Ponnada PHC doctor Bala Sundaram, who was a part of the survey team.
However, he said that being a medicine professional, he could not comment on the ground water pollution.
“With no alternatives, villagers continue to drink the water, which is leading to contract many infections.
The hatchery management has been negligent in taking precautionary measures to prevent the ground water contamination by the debris let out by the unit,” alleged M Ramulu, village head of D Matsalesam.
Taking the health concerns of the local people into account, the authorities are gearing up to set up an RO plant, in collaboration with the local hatchery.
“The ground water of this area is getting contaminated owing to several reasons.

by Kimberly Houghton, originally posted on July 9, 2016

 

MERRIMACK – It has been four months since contamination was discovered in private wells near Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, and since that time, hundreds of families are now receiving bottled water.

“Approximately 500 families are on bottled water throughout the state,” said Clark Freise, assistant commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. “Obviously, nobody likes to be on bottled water, but in general, we find people to be extremely cooperative.”

Since the investigation into perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, within some local water supplies was launched, Freise said 180 private wells have been detected with PFOA or a combination of PFOA and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) over 70 parts per trillion.

The data continue to grow as the investigation area in southern New Hampshire has expanded to include properties in Merrimack, Litchfield, Bedford, Amherst and a few locations in Manchester and Londonderry.

“The provision of bottled water serves as an interim measure while NHDES continues to investigate and determine the concentrations of contaminants actually present, and the appropriate long-term remedy for addressing wells containing elevated levels of perfluorochemicals in groundwater,” DES said in a recent statement.

For some individuals in town, using bottled water for drinking and cooking has become burdensome, prompting some homeowners to take matters into their own hands.

“We decided to have a whole house point-of-entry filter installed for peace of mind,” said Jane Sullivan, who lives on Springfield Circle in Merrimack. “Now I feel like life is back to normal for us because we don’t have to use the bottled water anymore.”

Her water filtration system was installed about a week ago, and Sullivan says she has no regrets about spending the $2,500 to purchase the system.

“I want the town of Merrimack to have a great reputation, and clean water. I feel really bad for people who don’t have the opportunity to do what we did,” said Sullivan. “This is impacting real estate values and people wanting to move to this area.”

Saint-Gobain doubts

She is hopeful that Merrimack Village District, the company that supplies public water to about 25,000 customers in Merrimack, will install its own filtration system for all of its supply wells as soon as possible.

Previously, an official with Saint-Gobain said that the company plans to install point-of-entry filtration systems on all private wells near the Merrimack plant that are detecting elevated levels of contamination.

However, DES and the Merrimack Village District have requested that Saint-Gobain also pay for the design, installation and operation of a treatment system to address contamination in two water district wells.

At this time, Saint-Gobain has not agreed to treat the public water supply.

“SGPP takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. As you know, SGPP has been working cooperatively and actively with the state of New Hampshire and potentially impacted parties to investigate and respond to the presence of PFOA in the vicinity of SGPP’s Merrimack facility,” Attorney Christopher Gibson, legal representative for Saint-Gobain, wrote in a letter to Ron Miner of MVD last week. “However, based on the information available to date, SGPP does not believe that it is responsible for the PFCs detected in the (two public) wells.”

According to Gibson, Saint-Gobain and its experts believe that the Longa Landfill, not the Merrimack Saint-Gobain plant, is the likely source of contamination in two public MVD wells. Gibson added that ChemFab, the company that preceded Saint-Gobain, did not begin operations at the Merrimack site until 1984, at which time the landfill had already been closed for three years.

On Wednesday, Thomas Burack, DES commissioner, said the state “disagrees with the technical assertions and position that (Saint-Gobain) presents relative to the origin of PFC contamination in these wells.”

Saint-Gobain’s message is a cause for concern, according to Burack, who said near-term efforts should be initiated to ensure that residents in southern New Hampshire that are serviced by the MVD water system have an adequate supply of safe, clean drinking water.

Investigation frustration

One of those residents, Richard Maloon of Merrimack, said his private well has detected contamination above 70 ppt when combining PFOA and PFOS. Still, Maloon says he lives more than 1.5 miles from the Saint-Gobain facility, and has not considered using bottled water.

“The actual probability that I would be affected by this water is really negligible because I am elderly, and most of my life I did not live in Merrimack,” said Maloon, of Amherst Road. “For myself, I am not too concerned.”

Although Maloon will continue drinking his tap water and isn’t worried about potential health implications, he did voice frustration with how the investigation has progressed.

Several months ago when PFOA was originally detected, there was never any mention of combining PFOA and PFOS levels to determine the exact level of contamination, said Maloon. Now that the data are being combined, there are more properties that are discovering elevated levels of contamination, which really should have been identified earlier on in the process, he said.

Later this month, state officials will begin offering blood tests to individuals impacted by the water contamination. The number of residents that have inquired about blood tests was not immediately available last week.

Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit was filed in May against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and its general manager at the Merrimack facility on behalf of residents with contaminated wells near the Merrimack plant.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages for the trespass, nuisance, loss of enjoyment and property damages in connection with water contamination allegedly caused by the Saint-Gobain site at 701 Daniel Webster Highway.

Kevin Brown, a resident at 498 Charles Bancroft Highway in Litchfield, is the plaintiff in the two separate class action suits – one focusing on medical monitoring as a result of the exposure to PFOA, and the other seeking a class action complaint and request for jury trial.

The next public hearing to discuss PFOA regulations will take place at 6 p.m. Aug. 3 at Campbell High School, 1 Highlander Court in Litchfield.

originally posted on July 9, 2016

 

BEIJING • Chinese environmental officials are increasingly turning to naming and shaming cities that fail to bring down pollution levels.

The latest effort involves water pollution which, like that of air and soil, has reached toxic levels across much of China.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has said it plans to release rankings of cities by water quality. It already does this with air quality, which is how ordinary Chinese know that coal-burning cities in Hebei province, surrounding the capital Beijing, are among the worst offenders when it comes to smog.

Chinese media reported on the plans this week, after the ministry released a draft proposal last month.

“The authorities will set up monitoring points in different cities to take samples of water to monitor the quality of rivers and lakes in 338 prefecture-level cities in 31 provinces,” the ministry said. Municipal-level cities such as Beijing, Chongqing and Tianjin and autonomous regions would be included.

The system will use 21 metrics to test the levels of metals, harmful chemicals and other pollutants which will help determine a City Water Quality Index. Each month, the 10 best and 10 worst cities will be announced.

“The city ranking publication could put pressure on responsible city governments to take action to improve the water quality, and also introduce a sense of competition… as a kind of motivation,” said Ms Ada Kong, who oversees the toxics campaign at Greenpeace East Asia, which is based in Beijing.

But Ms Kong said more information could be disclosed under the proposed plan. For example, the list does not have to be limited to the top and bottom 10 cities. The ministry could also release the 21 measurements for each city, she added.

Widespread environmental pollution is one of the issues of greatest concern to ordinary Chinese.

The Environment Ministry said inspection teams will be sent to eight more provinces and regions.

The latest round of inspection will cover the huge coal-producing regions such as Inner Mongolia and Ningxia in the north-west, the north-eastern industrial heartland of Heilongjiang and the poor rural regions of Yunnan and Guangxi in the south-west.

Separately, the Environment Ministry yesterday said it had fined several state-owned polluters in May for exceeding emission limits.

The Communist Party has been forced to respond to a rising outcry over this, especially among middle- class urban residents. Premier Li Keqiang has said China is committed to a “war on pollution”, and the government has enacted policies to limit coal-burning in large population centres as well as declared a “red alert” in Beijing on several recent occasions to warn residents of intense smog days.

Mr Ma Jun, an environmental transparency advocate, said that monitoring water quality in cities was far more difficult than monitoring air quality.

Officials can set up air monitors throughout a city to get average readings. With water, he said, officials will have to choose carefully which rivers and lakes around the cities to monitor and how to interpret the readings to make general statements about pollution levels.

by Aisha Morales and Angela Case, originally posted on July 8, 2016

 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hundreds of people from Security, Widefield, and Fountain packed the Mesa Ridge High School auditorium Thursday evening to hear from government agencies about how bad the contaminated water is, and what they’re doing to fix it.

About 60,000 people are in the area affected by the water contamination. State health officials said if you live in the affected zone, you should find other sources of drinking water, especially if you are pregnant or have small children. If you’re not drinking the water, neither should your pets.

The water contains high levels of PFCs, which are human-made chemicals found in things like firefighting foams and surface protection products. Representatives from Peterson Air Force base said they’ll be replacing their firefighting foam with synthetic foam. They’ll also pay $4.3 million to install water filters at wells in the three affected cities.

If you were unable to attend the meeting and have questions, you can call the El Paso County Public Health hotline at 719-575-8602.

by Kara Driscoll, originally posted on July 8, 2016

 

by Michael Smith, originally posted on July 8, 2016

 

ITHACA, NY – Over the past few weeks, many Ithacans have started getting discolored, odorous water from their taps. While the city is reassuring everyone that it’s fine to drink, some residents remain concerned.

Concerns about lead began with the Ithaca City School District’s issues with lead contamination earlier this year. With the revelation yesterday that several fixtures in Cass and Stewark Parks and in multiple city-owned buildings also tested high for lead, some people are looking for a connection.

“These two issues have kind of been conflated — and I can totally see why they have — people are seeing that they have discolored water and hearing that there’s lead detected at Stewart and Cass,” said Alderperson Seph Murtagh. “I totally understand why people are concerned, but at this point they are two separate issues.”

Murtagh also pointed out that, much as was the case in ICSD schools, the initial test results might not be reflective of the true lead content. As the fixtures were tested in May after a lower-use period, they are going to be re-tested under “typical” conditions.

Furthermore, the city is performing another lead test on its main water sources, two years ahead of its state-mandated testing cycle. The City’s 2015 water quality report showed no lead significant lead contamination in any of the city’s water sources.

A recurring issue

Murtagh said that he had heard of similar issues happening in previous years under similar dry conditions, though this was the first time he’d experienced them himself or heard of the problem being so wide-spread.

“We always have a few turbid water complaints in the summer, but it’s usually in the periphery,” said Assistant Superintendent of Department of Public Works Eric Whitney. “This is by far the greatest concentration of in probably over a decade.”

Whitney said that the Water and Sewer Department had received over 100 calls since the previous Friday. He explained the discolored water as a result of lower flows from the reservoir leading to increased concentrations of iron, manganese and calcium carbonate.

Both Murtagh and Whitney indicated that the dry season was a major factor in the water discoloration issue. Lower rainfall leads to more people watering their lawns and gardens, which puts more pressure on the system.

Whitney said that his department’s plan of attack seemed to be working. After flushing nearby hydrants, discoloration in water to nearby fixtures was significantly decreased. In addition, they have been making adjustments to achieve the correct chemical balances at the new water treatment plant, which has yielded positive results.

Aside from that, he said, getting a little rainfall would be a nice help.

The advisory was issued Friday due to high bacteria levels

-originally posted on July 8, 2016

 

NORTH BLOOMFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – The Mosquito Creek Reservoir is currently under a water contamination advisory, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The advisory was issued Friday due to high bacteria levels. The reservoir has been under contamination advisories four times since 2013 due to high bacteria levels.

A sample was taken Wednesday, showing e. Coli levels were 940 colonies/100ml of water, well above the Ohio Water Quality recommendations for public beaches of 235 colonies E. Coli /100ml of water.

The advisory won’t be lifted until e. Coli levels are lowered.

by Tome Spears, originally posted on July 8, 2016

 

The National Research Council has formally acknowledged to residents of the town that its National Fire Laboratory is the source of contamination in the residents’ wells.

“It’s kind of like a truth and reconciliation process,” Mayor Shaun McLaughlin said Friday. The NRC acknowledges its role, “now let’s move forward to fix it.”

McLaughlin said the confirmation came from NRC’s acting president, Maria Aubrey, during a recent meeting with a residents’ group where McLaughlin was present.

An NRC spokesman contacted early Friday morning confirmed that the chemicals “originated from the NFL (National Fire Laboratory) site.”

McLaughlin said that lingering issue is now resolved.

“I was at the meeting where they (confirmed they are the source),” he said. “This is from the top, that yes, they admit they are sort of Ground Zero for the pollution, the PFAS pollution in the groundwater.

“They are taking full responsibility.”

PFAS, or perfluorinated alkyl substances, are chemicals commonly used in firefighting foam. They were identified in NRC’s own water at the lab south of Almonte about two years ago. Residents across the road, who have wells, were informed late last year and some of them have the same chemicals.

But NRC said at first that it needed to check more of the surrounding groundwater before determining whether its lab and firefighting experiments were the source.

He credits the agency with working hard to provide clean water to residents with chemicals in their wells. The NRC has provided bottled water and also filtration systems that remove the chemical from well water.

He said NRC is also going to truck away the most contaminated soil from its own property. It also plans to install a clay “cap” — a layer of clay that will make rainwater run off so that it won’t wash remaining chemicals through the groundwater toward the houses.

“So they are basically trying to stabilize the chemicals that are there, so they no longer feed into the groundwater. So eventually the groundwater is going to clean itself up.”

The work is expected to take place sometime this summer, he said.

The National Research Council has formally acknowledged to residents of the town that its National Fire Laboratory is the source of contamination in the residents’ wells.

“It’s kind of like a truth and reconciliation process,” Mayor Shaun McLaughlin said Friday. The NRC acknowledges its role, “now let’s move forward to fix it.”

McLaughlin said the confirmation came from NRC’s acting president, Maria Aubrey, during a recent meeting with a residents’ group where McLaughlin was present.

An NRC spokesman contacted early Friday morning confirmed that the chemicals “originated from the NFL (National Fire Laboratory) site.”

McLaughlin said that lingering issue is now resolved.

“I was at the meeting where they (confirmed they are the source),” he said. “This is from the top, that yes, they admit they are sort of Ground Zero for the pollution, the PFAS pollution in the groundwater.

“They are taking full responsibility.”

PFAS, or perfluorinated alkyl substances, are chemicals commonly used in firefighting foam. They were identified in NRC’s own water at the lab south of Almonte about two years ago. Residents across the road, who have wells, were informed late last year and some of them have the same chemicals.

But NRC said at first that it needed to check more of the surrounding groundwater before determining whether its lab and firefighting experiments were the source.

He credits the agency with working hard to provide clean water to residents with chemicals in their wells. The NRC has provided bottled water and also filtration systems that remove the chemical from well water.

He said NRC is also going to truck away the most contaminated soil from its own property. It also plans to install a clay “cap” — a layer of clay that will make rainwater run off so that it won’t wash remaining chemicals through the groundwater toward the houses.

“So they are basically trying to stabilize the chemicals that are there, so they no longer feed into the groundwater. So eventually the groundwater is going to clean itself up.”

The work is expected to take place sometime this summer, he said.

by Jeff Mordock, originally posted on July 7, 2016

 

WILMINGTON, Del. — DuPont acted with malice by dumping a toxic chemical from its West Virginia plant into the Ohio River, a federal jury said Wednesday afternoon in awarding $5.1 million in compensatory damages to a man who developed cancer.

The jury will meet Thursday to begin deciding the amount of punitive damages to be handed out to the plaintiff, David Freeman, 56, of Washington County, Ohio. After a five-week trial in Columbus, Ohio, a jury deliberated for less than a day.

DuPont spokesman Dan Turner declined to comment on the verdict. DuPont maintains there were only small amounts of C8 in drinking water.

Jean Eggen, a professor emeritus at Widener University Delaware Law School, said the finding of malice and awarding of punitive damages might pressure DuPont to settle future cases. The company faces more than 3,500 lawsuits in Ohio over its alleged role in dumping C8, a toxic chemical found in Teflon, into the region’s drinking water.

“The finding of malice is an indication that other cases might result in punitive damages,” Eggen said. “That would create a lot of motivation for them to settle.”

Freeman’s lawsuit is one of six so-called bellwether cases the Wilmington-based chemical company faced over the release of C8, also known as Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, into the ground, water and air in the Mid-Ohio Valley region along the Ohio River in West Virginia and Ohio.

The News Journal documented the toxic chemical’s release from DuPont’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., in a recent series.

Clara Bartlett, the first bellwether plaintiff, was awarded $1.6 million by an Ohio federal jury. DuPont has appealed the verdict.

A second case, brought by West Virginia plaintiff, John M. Wolf, was settled earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. It was not immediately clear late Wednesday where the other bellwether cases stand.

In the Bartlett case, the jury awarded compensatory damages for her suffering, but not punitive damages. Eggen said it’s hard to know why a jury found punitive damages in one case, but not the other.

“Different juries look at evidence in different ways,” she said.

Because of the two juries differing takes on the malice issue, Eggen said DuPont may want to wait and see what happens with the other bellwether cases before it makes a decision on whether to settle the remaining cases.

“It might be premature for DuPont to rush into a settlement, but on the other hand, they may want to stop the bleeding,” she said.

During Freeman’s trial, his attorney argued the company knowingly dumped C8 into the water.

A former spokeswoman for DuPont’s Ohio River plant in Parkersburg testified she never knew of any concerns about C8 being dumped into the river when she told residents the water was safe to drink. But Freeman’s attorney showed the spokeswoman, Dawn Jackson, internal company documents and memos about concerns with C8, many of which she said she had never seen before.

Cynthia Salitsky, a spokeswoman for DuPont spinoff Chemours, said the verdict would be appealed. Chemours broke away from DuPont last year and assumed control of the Washington Works plant.

DuPont, which is the defendant in each of the cases, could ask Chemours to reimburse it for any damages awarded by juries in the C8 cases. An understanding that DuPont could require Chemours to cover the potential damages awards was part of Chemours’ agreement to split from DuPont.

Salitsky said the company might fight DuPont’s attempts to seek reimbursement, noting that Chemours could fight DuPont in court to avoid reimbursing the company.

An organization that advocates for residents in the Ohio Valley called Keep Your Promises, DuPont applauded the outcome of the case.

“Today’s verdict puts a spotlight on DuPont’s negligence and conscious disregard for the people of the mid-Ohio Valley,” said Harold Block, a member of the group, in a statement.

Block called the decision a victory for the Mid-Ohio Valley, including those who participating in a medical monitoring program. The program tests citizens who have been exposed to C8 to determine if they are developing one of six illnesses linked to the toxic chemical.

“To the extent that this is a signal of verdicts to come, this verdict alone will make the cost of DuPont’s C8 abuse skyrocket into billions of dollars, which so many residents and communities sorely need,” Block said.