originally posted on April 13, 2016

MERRIMACK — The area of private well testing has been expanded to a 1.5 mile radius from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, after new tests revealed additional water contamination.

State officials said that 200 additional private wells in Manchester, Londonderry and Bedford will now be tested for potential perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

So far 232 private wells tested positive for contamination in the towns of Merrimack and Litchfield. One- hundred and sixty- one water sample tests have been returned from the lab.

“We are formally expanding the testing radius to 1.5 miles based on the latest round of test results,” public information officer with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Jim Martin told the Union Leader. “We still have some more results to come in.”

One private well in Merrimack along the Daniel Webster Highway has detected about 1,600 parts per trillion of PFOA. Martin told the paper, that the well showing 1,600 ppt is also in that same vicinity, however it is not a drinking water well.

DES is currently waiting for results from about 70 private water well tests taken from Merrimack and Litchfield.

Right now, there are 200 families in both towns that are receiving bottled water because of the contamination. PFOA has been linked to about three different kinds of cancer and other illnesses.

by Ellen Knickmeyer, originally posted on April 13, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is failing in its mandate to protect underground drinking water reserves from oilfield contamination, according to a federal review singling out lax EPA oversight in California, where the state routinely allowed oil companies to dump wastewater into some drinking water aquifers.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office review also sampled EPA operations around the country before concluding federal regulators were failing to collect paperwork and make on-site inspections necessary to ensure states are enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act when it comes to oilfield operations.

“The takeaway overall is that the EPA doesn’t collect and states don’t provide the information for the EPA to exercise the oversight that’s its job,” said Kassie Siegel, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups critical of state and federal regulation of oilfield waste and drinking water.

“It shows a massive failure to protect our drinking water,” Siegel said, emphasizing the problem in California.

The federal review released last month made an object lesson of California, the country’s No. 3 oil-producing state, where state and federal regulators have acknowledged since at least 2014 that state-permitted oilfield operations were violating safe-drinking water laws.

Violations included allowing oilfield companies to dump wastewater into at least 11 underground aquifers that were supposed to have been protected by federal law as potential sources of drinking water.

An Associated Press analysis in 2015 cited more than 2,000 permits California had given oil companies to inject into federally protected drinking water reserves. The AP analysis found granting of such permits had sped up since 2011 under Gov. Jerry Brown, although the state said it believed its dates on some of the permitting information were wrong.

In a statement, the EPA said Wednesday it generally agreed with the federal review and would take steps to improve data-collection and oversight. EPA spokeswoman Kelly Zito also said that this week’s resignation of Jared Blumenfeld, regional EPA administrator for California, was not related to either the oilfield issues or the Government Accountability Office report.

California’s oil regulators said Tuesday the state’s overhaul of its enforcement of safe-drinking-water laws and the oil and gas industry was “well-underway.”

Overall, “California is ahead in reforming its underground injection program compared to other states,” said Teresa Schilling, assistant director of the California Department of Conservation.

The issue concerns the disposal of oilfield wastewater by oil companies nationally. Oil drilling and other operations produce massive amounts of briny fluid and other waste. Oilfield operators often dispose of the waste by injecting it back underground.

State and federal law regulate how the oil companies do that, with the goal of protecting naturally occurring underground water aquifers pure enough to potentially one day be tapped for drinking water or irrigation.

Government Accountability Office inspectors cited California’s experience, and their own past and current scrutiny of EPA operations around the country, in concluding “EPA does not have the information, or consistently conduct the oversight activities, needed … to help ensure that (state and federal regulators) protect underground sources of drinking water.”

The sampling studied EPA operations in Colorado, Kentucky, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas with regard to federally protected drinking water and underground injection of oilfield waste.

EPA administrators told federal inspectors that they lacked the resources to assemble the needed databases on oilfield operations and water aquifers, or to inspect state oilfield regulatory operations in person, the Government Accountability Office report said.

The report is the first to publicly examine the EPA’s role in the failures of California’s regulation of oilfield waste and drinking water aquifers.

The report also highlighted some new problems with California’s oilfield regulation, such as more than $5 million in penalties that Government Accountability Office inspectors said California had levied against oil companies but not yet collected.

California is now under an EPA-agreed timetable for bringing oilfield regulation into compliance with federal drinking water laws, although Siegel and other environmentalists claim the state is already falling behind on that schedule.

Schilling, the California official, said the state had met the “major deadlines.” The state was looking into the Government Accountability Office allegation of uncollected oilfield penalties, she said.

California officials have acknowledged that they allowed oilfield contamination of some federally protected drinking water aquifers, although they say the limited tests made public so far show contamination has not reached drinking water wells.

by Daniel Tyson, originally posted on April 13, 2016

PINEVILLE — Jury selection started Tuesday in a trial involving contaminated drinking water, third-party complaints and a mining company owned by a gubernatorial candidate.

For most of the day, attorneys asked scores potential jurors myriad questions, ranging from their thoughts on mining practices to environmental issues, hoping to find a six-person jury and two alternates.

For the next two to three weeks, the jurors will listen and then determine if mining practices used by Dynamic Energy Inc, and its parent company Mechel Bluestone Inc, owned by Jim Justice, contaminated the drinking water of 16 families in Wyoming County. Justice is a Democratic candidate for governor.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, David Barney, of the Charleston law firm of Barney Thompson PLLC continues Dynamic’s permit stated the company would replace water of surrounding homes if their well water’s quality or quantity was affected.

Barney said the water of families living in Coal Mountain, Reedy Creek and Simon was contaminated by mining activity before December 2014, when the mine was owned by the Russian conglomerate OAO Mechel.

In February 2015, Justice repurchased the mines, restarting operations employing union miners.

In late 2014, Wyoming County Circuit Judge Warren McGraw ordered Dynamic Energy to provide families with bottled drinking water and water from 1,500-gallon tanks for household use.

Dynamic Energy then filed a third-party complaint against Virginia Drilling of Vansant, Va., claiming the water contamination happened as a result of mine blasting conducted by contract drilling company.

In response, it’s been reported, Virginia Drilling filed another complaint against Justice Energy.

In March 2016, McGraw granted the families’ motion to sever the third-party complaints from the initial lawsuit.

The defense could introduce a West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection report which concluded there was no correlation between the mine and those contaminated wells.

The day before the trial, the Justice Companies released a statement stating that it is sympathetic to the needs of the affected families and that it has hauled fresh water to each house since the case was brought against OAO Mechel.

“Unfortunately, these lawyers are greedy and looking for a personal payday,” said Tom Lusk, a spokesman for the company. “West Virginia DEP water scientists have concluded that there is no correlation between this mine and those wells. Anyone with a legitimate issue we will make whole.”

Lusk said the company is fighting the lawsuit in order to keep 150 union miners employed.

The amount of damages sought in the lawsuit was not released Tuesday.

A United Mine Workers of America official described the lawsuit as baseless.

“The way I understand it is that some of the water would have had to travel up hill for the wells to become contaminated,” said Phil Smith, director of government affairs for the UMWA.

originally posted on April 13, 2016

Kollam: Residents of Paravur municipality, having just started recovering from the deadly Kollam temple tragedy which claimed at least 113 lives and left over 350 injured, have to grapple with a fresh challenge: the availability of clean water. On Wednesday, The Times of India reported that human remains, ash and debris from the explosion had contaminated most of the open wells in the area, a revelation that came to light following inspections conducted by the state’s health department.

The report also said that following the tragedy, a combined team of experts from the state’s health and water authority departments had been dispatched to collect water samples from local wells for testing and advised residents not to use water from the wells for drinking and other purposes until the results were out.

Although local NGOs have swung into action to provide support and the Paravur municipality is providing two tankers of water per day to the 50 or so households affected in the area, the report quoted a tanker truck driver as saying that it has become difficult to supply drinking water as most of the potable water sources in nearby areas have already dried up.

In a related development, IBNLive reported that the Kerala High Court on Tuesday suggested a CBI probe into the fire tragedy, and directed the state government to take action against those responsible for the disaster.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called an all-party meeting to discuss the tragedy, and was quoted by IBNLive as saying, “It is only the observation of the High Court that Kollam tragedy should be investigated by the CBI. We have called for an all-party meeting on April 14 where the next course of action and decision will be taken.”

The Solicitor General, appearing on behalf of the Kerala state government, told the high court that it could not rule out violation of safety measures during the fireworks on the night of the tragedy.

The court then questioning the role of officials in preventing such firework displays in the district, the High Court directed state authorities to “act against erring officials,” and also asked the state police and the district officials to submit an affidavit to this effect.

originally posted on April 12, 2016

by Kerry Klein, originally posted on April 12, 2016

Many valley residents struggle to access drinking water—some don’t have enough, while others face contamination. Now, a new law allows the state to step in and help those in need. In its first success story, the law didn’t just bring water to a community; it helped end a standoff with a neighboring city.

It’s a sunny afternoon in Tulare County, and Reinelda Palma and Javier Medina are taking me on a tour of their neighborhood. They live in a small community called Matheny Tract, right on the outskirts of the City of Tulare. While Palma calls her chihuahuas into her front gate, Medina takes a swig from a plastic water bottle—the only drinking water he has access to.

Matheny has no sidewalks, so we walk along the potholed road. At night, with hardly any streetlights, this would be pitch black. They don’t get a lot of services out here. But we do see a bright yellow fire hydrant, shiny and smooth and partially wrapped in plastic. It looks like it’s never been used. I ask Palma and Medina: These neighborhood hydrants don’t work, do they? “No, no,” they say.

Matheny Tract is a tiny cluster of about 350 homes. Almost a third of its 1200 residents live below the federal poverty line. Most are Latino, like Reinelda Palma. She, her husband and their three dogs have lived here for 13 years.

That’s because the hydrants are waiting to be hooked up to water. They’re a little over a year old; so are the water mains that left scars underneath Matheny’s roads. But within the next two months, hydrants and pipes will be flowing with water from the City of Tulare next door. It’s a triumph for the community, but it hasn’t been easy. Palma and Medina have been fighting for access to Tulare’s drinking water for over 7 years. A new state law just ended their legal stalemate—and that law could help other disadvantaged communities as well.

“I’m a homemaker, I’m retired,” she says in Spanish. “My husband’s the only one that works sometimes. Because of the drought he’s also laid off a lot.”

They drank their tap water until Palma started having skin problems a few years ago. A doctor told her she had been exposed to arsenic, a contaminant that had been found in Matheny’s two community wells. That’s when she switched to bottled water—and began advocating for Matheny.

“It was very dramatic when the doctor told me that I had high arsenic contamination in my body,” she says. “And I thought, if this is happening to me, then this must be happening to everyone including the children.”

Effectively in local government,” Werner says, “often there’s no elected representatives claiming to have any responsibility to ensure that residents have access to clean water.”

As we walk through Matheny Tract, we pass one- and two-story homes, palm trees and bursts of aloe vera.

Matheny could be any small Central Valley town—only it’s not. It’s unincorporated, which means it’s not a town. It has no city government and it has to get all its services from Tulare County. But according to Ashley Werner, an attorney with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, in the case of Matheny, the county said it wouldn’t provide water.

Matheny could have easily fallen through the cracks. But early on, it didn’t look like it was going to. They had found a solution: Pipe in clean water from the City of Tulare, which borders Matheny. It’s so close, Palma can point to it from her backyard.

So in 2009, Matheny and Tulare signed a contract to connect their water systems. Roads were dug up, water mains installed, and hydrants put in place. But in 2014, the city sued. Officials wanted to reevaluate the contract.

“We did not have capacity to serve 300 homes at a turn of the switch,” says Martin Koczanowicz, the city attorney for Tulare. “We spent over half a million dollars in short term fixes in our infrastructure in order to get the capacity back, and we had jurisdictional issues which were a barrier.”

Construction in Matheny halted. At the same time, the city continued supplying drinking water to new developments. Koczanowicz says getting water to Matheny was always a priority—but Werner says the city’s actions said something different. Residents felt discriminated against.

“It was a lack of responsibility on the part of elected officials to the residents of Matheny Tract,” says Werner—“in a sense, by everybody involved, that they had no duty and no commitment to this community.”

“What this case shows is that SB 88 is possible and it’s feasible, and that there really are solutions for communities that lack access to clean drinking water,” she says. “Especially in the case where they’re right next door to a city that has clean drinking water.”

Matheny countersued. It remained without water until March of this year, when the state intervened under a new law. SB 88 authorizes the state to order a city to share its water with communities that need it. Matheny Tract is the law’s first success. Now that it’s been demonstrated, Werner hopes the new law can help the many other communities facing water problems in the valley.

Getting clean water is a huge relief for Palma’s neighbor Javier Medina. He’s a dairy worker, and he supports a family of six. Right now, he says they need six 5-gallon jugs and dozens of tiny water bottles each week.

He’s glad that the state stepped in. But he wishes it hadn’t been necessary.

“We live in best country in the world and everyone should be looking out for everyone’s well-being,’ he says in Spanish. “Everyone should try to find a way to help their neighbor.”

After a few more finishing touches, like meters, Matheny’s water system should be done by June first. Then, Matheny residents will be paying water customers—just like their neighbors in Tulare.

by Alap Naik Desai, originally posted on April 12, 2016

China’s polluted wells are posing a serious water problem in the country. Evidently, the air pollution that the country is currently facing may be significantly dwarfed by the sheer amount of contaminated water due to frenzied industrial activity and aggressive farming.

Government-sanctioned research has indicated that more than 80 percent of China’s underground water sources that the agency tested are extensively polluted. These sources are being used by farms, factories, and rural households. However, they are actually hazardous and should not be consumed or even used for other purposes like bathing. The level of contamination across the heavily populated and already polluted plains of China is a cause for serious concern, and the country could soon face an acute shortage of drinkable water.

For quite some time, the world has witnessed the thick layer of smog that clouds China’s skies. In fact, the hazy skies have been considered as a measure of environmental crisis. Additionally, research indicates about 2,103 underground wells are heavily polluted, and drawing water from them could be dangerous, reported Economic Times.

While most major Chinese cities have drilled deep within the Earth to source water, many villages and small towns in the countryside still depend on shallow wells, which were part of the testing. The results suggest more than the atmospheric pollution, it is the groundwater contamination that is the graver threat, shared Dabo Guan, a professor at the University of East Anglia in Britain who has been studying water pollution and scarcity in China.

“From my point of view, this shows how water is the biggest environmental issue in China. People in the cities, they see air pollution every day, so it creates huge pressure from the public. But in the cities, people don’t see how bad the water pollution is. They don’t have the same sense.”

The report, compiled by the Water Resources Ministry, indicated that from the 2,103 wells, water from 32.9 percent is suitable only for industrial and agricultural purposes. What’s concerning is that 47.3 percent of the wells are so contaminated that the water cannot be used for any human activity. The Ministry conducted the study on the country’s major eastern flatland watersheds and discovered none of the wells could be considered “pristine” or devoid of any artificial components. However, water in wells in the Beijing area rated better overall than elsewhere in the northeast, reported the Guardian.

Is China going to face acute water shortage soon? Following the media coverage of the report, officials attempted to control the inevitable mass hysteria by assuring the public that majority of the households, primarily in the urban regions, need not worry, as their water comes from reservoirs. The large water storage facilities draw their water from deep aquifers or rivers, which aren’t as polluted as the shallower wells in rural regions. Moreover, the water sent to urban households undergoes extensive purification processes, which makes the water safe for drinking and other human activities.

However, despite the assurance, China is headed towards an ecological crisis, experts fear. Alongside water and air pollution, soil contamination is a steadily worsening issue. Incidentally, all these types of pollution are extensively interlinked, pointed out environmentalists.

Extensive use of land for agriculture means heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. The artificial chemicals run off into the water sources like wells and lakes. Farmers then bore deeper and draw water, which is increasingly draining the aquifers. Meanwhile, untreated factory waste is being steadily dumped into the ground and nearby water sources, further polluting them.

Interestingly, China has formulated a National Groundwater Pollution Prevention Plan and even announced funding to the tune of 34 billion Yuan ($5.2 billion). However, the disparity between the roles of the Water Resources Ministry and Ministry of Environmental Protection is perhaps hindering the proper implementation.

by David Sneed, originally posted on April 11, 2016

Forty-eight residents of southern San Luis Obispo have filed claims against San Luis Obispo County for allegedly polluting their domestic wells.

All of the people live in the Buckley Road area and have been exposed to well water contaminated by the solvent trichloroethylene or TCE. The claimants either own homes or live in homes in the Buckley Road area. About 20 households have filed claims.

John Fiske, an attorney representing the claimants, said he expects the county to reject the claims, at which time a lawsuit will be filed against the county. The claims say the county was negligent in its management of the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, which is a possible source of the contamination.

“We have six months to file the lawsuit after the county rejects the claims but we’ll do it much sooner than that,” Fiske said. Calls to residents with contaminated wells were referred to Fiske.

The claims say that, during the 1960s, the county dumped toxic chemicals including but not limited to TCE, waste solvents, lubricants and fuel on or around the airport. The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has given the county a deadline of Friday to submit a work plan detailing how it will search the airport property for the possible source of TCE contamination.

The contamination was discovered in October when a resident off Buckley Road noticed an odor from his well water. The county Public Health Department issued a public health alert in December and has sent letters to those with contaminated wells advising them of the problem and urging them to install charcoal filtration systems to remove the TCE from the water.

State water officials say they have tested 64 wells in the Buckley Road area and found 12 exceeded the state threshold for TCE contamination. The airport is considered a possible source of the contamination because TCE was used as a solvent in the aircraft industry before it was phased out in the 1970s because of its toxicity.

The airport is uphill of the contaminated wells and the TCE could have flowed downhill from the airport. Airport officials have said they do not think the airport is the source of the contamination.

The claims do not contain a monetary sum but say the damages could exceed $1 million per claimant. The claims say the contamination has resulted in property damage, diminished property values, cleanup costs, medical monitoring, bodily injury and emotional distress.

The claims also frequently include the cost of treating the well water with reverse osmosis systems, carbon filters and chlorination. The cost of such treatment systems is typically about $11,000.

The county has been served with 48 claims, but the number of claims could eventually rise to more than 50.

“At this time, the county is in the process of reviewing the claims and will then determine an appropriate response,” said San Luis Obispo County Counsel Rita Neal.

TCE is a colorless, volatile, nonflammable liquid that has a sweet solvent or chloroform-like odor, county health officials said. However, odor is not a reliable method for detecting TCE in drinking water, because people cannot smell the contaminant at levels near the state limit.

Long-term exposure to TCE can cause liver or kidney damage and may pose an increased risk of cancer.

Saint-Gobain providing month’s supply of water to residents within 1 mile of plant

-by Mike Cronin, originally posted on April 10, 2016

LITCHFIELD, N.H. —

On Sunday, residents of Litchfield and Merrimack who live within 1 mile of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics facility were allowed to pick up a month’s supply of bottled water at the Litchfield Recycling Center, in addition to delivered bottled water paid for by the company.

Saint-Gobain is offering bottled water to about 400 homes in the two towns after the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid was detected around the company’s Merrimack plant.

Dan Morin is one of many impacted residents who picked up water Sunday morning for his family. He received 30 gallons.

“They had a pretty good team there, so it was in and out of there,” Morin said. “They set us up, they loaded up the car for me.”

Morin’s well was tested, but the results haven’t come in yet.

“I don’t think we’re going to get any issues right now, but 10 years from now, 30 years from now?” he said. “I don’t want to say, ‘I wish I did this, I wish I was a little more cautious.’”

Morin’s neighbors on Jeff Lane are also taking advantage of the water being offered to them. Sharon Gelinas will be picking up her water on Monday.

“I think it’s great that it’s available, because what else would we do?” she said. “We’d go out spending hundreds of dollars on bottled water at the food market.”

Water was delivered to Rick Pelletier’s house on Saturday. His well still needs to be tested.

“We’re just hopeful,” he said. “And it seems like the state and DES and our town is really involved to try to get questions answered.”

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is working with Saint-Gobain to continue tests and figure out the long-term effects of PFOA.”

“It’s just an inconvenience as it is,” Morin said. “There’s nothing to prevent it. It’s there. They’re making it as easy as they possibly can for us.”

If you qualify to receive bottled water, it can be picked up at the Litchfield Recycling Center on Monday from noon to 7 p.m.

by Chris Conley, originally posted on April 11, 2016

WAUPUN, Wis (WSAU-MetroSource) Prison officials are testing water in two state penitentiaries after being bombarded with complaints about bad taste and a foul smell.

Tests have shown lead and contamination in the water supply at the prisons at Waupun and Fox Lake. A judge ordered the state back in 2014 to lower lead levels at Fox Lake. The prison failed water quality tests as far back 2009.

A group of inmates at Fox Lake told the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that prison water is routinely yellowish with dark sediment in it. The Department of Corrections says one well that supplies water to Fox Lake is no longer being used, and they will soon begin a new water treatment program to limit corrosion in the jail’s pipes.