State Rep. Tom Murt this week asked Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Wolf this week, state Rep. Tom Murt, R-152, of Upper Moreland, asked the governor to visit local areas impacted by ground and drinking water contamination.
The request comes at a time of renewed interest in perfluorinated chemicals, which were used at area military bases and eventually discovered to have contaminated water supplies, primarily in Warminster, Warrington and Horsham.
None of those towns fall in Murt’s district, but the representative’s request demonstrates concerns cross municipal borders.
Lower levels of the chemicals have also been found in nearby towns that also rely on groundwater, including Hatboro and Upper Dublin.
The presence of the chemicals in Hatboro and Upper Dublin has not yet been definitively tied to the military, which publicly took responsibility for the high levels of the chemicals in Warminster, Warrington, and Horsham.
“Every day, as these contaminants find their way into our local environment, Upper Dublin finds itself in their path because the steps taken to prevent contamination in other areas have not been taken there.” Wolf press secretary J.J. Abbott wrote in an email his office only learned of the request today when asked by the media, and that the governor’s office would review it.
A board within the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is also considering setting its own standard for one PFAS chemical, PFOA.
The move would be unusual, as the state typically relies on the EPA to set standards.
Murt touted the bills again in his letter to Wolf.

Mike Nicholson By Mike Nicholson August is National Water Quality Month, and it’s a good time for our neighbors to think about the ways they can protect the water quality in MetroWest and inside their own homes.
Rain will flush everything from pet waste to fertilizer from your lawns right down into the storm drains.
All that mess ends up in local rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater.
Picking up pet waste and trash from your lawn doesn’t just make you a good neighbor — it also protects the water supply.
Inside your home, be mindful of what you are pouring down the drain.
Soaps, household chemicals, detergents and medications all end up in the water supply once they’ve been flushed down the drain.
Water quality inside the home Homeowners who aren’t on a municipal water supply shouldn’t assume their water is safe.
While public water systems are regulated by the EPA, private water supplies aren’t.
If any contaminants are identified, a professional can recommend a home water treatment system to improve the water quality, giving you peace of mind.
Use these tips to protect and preserve the quality of water in your home and in MetroWest.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Ohio EPA is considering funding a project in Youngstown that would change the city’s sewer systems, improve a parking lot, modify the Covelli Centre Pond and remove contaminated materials.
The funding would be available through the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund program and would help Youngstown in its plan to reroute, create and abandon some of the city’s current sewer systems.
The city’s long-term plan is to connect a new sanitary sewer network to a future, proposed tunnel under the Mahoning River and its wastewater treatment plant.
It would then abandon the temporary connection.
The on-going project would abandon about 2550 lineal feet of existing sanitary sewers and manholes.
There would also be site restoration.
The estimated cost of this related project is $16.3 million.
It is scheduled to be designed by spring 2020 and constructed by fall 2025.
The public has through August 27 to review the assessment and provide comments.
The assessment is available here.

SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) – There was standing room only during a community meeting in Satellite Beach Sunday, regarding cancer concerns and water contamination.
A number of people in the crowd raised their hands when asked whether they are a cancer survivor, or the parent of one.
“We’ve all been through it, we’re all going through it now.
We’re all feeling the same thing.
Right now, health officials are investigating a possible cancer cluster among Satellite High School alumni.
School board officials say they found trace levels of a contaminant in the drinking water at nine schools in Brevard County.
They say according to federal guidelines, the water is still safe.
This all comes after a report on Patrick Air Force base showed the groundwater was contaminated with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals.
“I think all we found is more questions right now, which I know is frustrating to a lot of the residents,” said Dr. Julie Greenwalt, a radiation oncologist and cancer survivor who graduated from Satellite High School.
They say they plan to do more testing.

A town’s water supply has been shut off after a car plunged into a lake that provides water to 30,000 people.
There are concerns that a Mitsubishi ute that plunged into Mount Gambier’s volcanic Blue Lake on Friday night, has been contaminating the water.
A town’s water supply has been shut off after a car plunged into a lake that provides water to 30,000 people ‘We were concerned that there could be come hydro or diesel contamination,’ South Australia Water’s Mark Gobbie said.
Blue Lake provides drinking water to 30,000 people in Mount Gambier, and testing is set to be done to confirm the water is 100 per cent safe, 9News reported.
‘This will need to be a carefully planned job, taking into consideration factors like local road closures and necessary permits and approvals.
The car continues to pose no safety or other risks.’
The 22-year-old was driving a Mitsubishi ute near Mount Gambier’s volcanic Blue Lake on Friday night when the car tore through a guard rail.
Police told ABC News it took several hours to retrieve the man from the slope into a rescue boat at the bottom.
General manager Mark Gobbie said efforts to retrieve the car were still underway, ‘We’re looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex.’
‘We’re looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex,’ he told ABC News.

At the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment — where state officials have begun making a list of sites where perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, may have been spilled — agency chiefs say they will enforce any limit the EPA sets.
Our water is contaminated.
As more sites are found, more pressure is put on limited state and federal resources.” In Colorado, PFCs contamination showed up most recently last month in South Adams County Water and Sanitation District wells that supplied raw water for 50,000 residents across 65 square miles of north metro Denver.
CDPHE officials do not routinely test groundwater.
“An additional purpose of this effort is to help us understand the scope of PFAS issues across the state, to better inform our regulatory approach to PFAS moving forward.” Some states have set or are considering state-level regulatory limits — as low as 1 ppt in Vermont.
Colorado health officials have not set a statewide regulatory limit.
“We don’t have regulatory authority,” Richardson said.
“This is a new type of contamination that’s been under the regulatory radar since the EPA was formed, and the EPA is just turning their attention to it.
“CDPHE supports EPA following the process in the Safe Drinking Water Act,” agency officials from multiple divisions said in a prepared response to Denver Post queries.
“We would like the EPA to do more research — on all of the 3,000 chemicals — and develop an appropriate response that addresses the risks.”

Bottled water has been issued to dozens of residents in Killeavy, County Armagh, after the discovery of a disused pipe which contained residual diesel/petrol.
NI Water said it had carried out a flushing exercise to clear the system.
It said it would "continue to flush as long as necessary to resolve the problem".
"In the interim, a ‘Do not use tap water for drinking or cooking’ notice was issued to 43 homes," said NI Water in a statement.
"Our number one priority is the quality and safety of drinking water and our policy is to err on the side of caution."
Sinn Féin councillor Liz Kimmins said a similar issue had arisen about three years ago in relation to water in the area.
"The problem has arisen again in the past few days.
"Water going into homes appears to be contaminated with a diesel type substance and there is a horrible smell off it."
‘Ground contamination’ NI Water confirmed the area was affected by a similar issue in 2015.
"We are also arranging to have a section of water main and services replaced with barrier pipe work to avoid any future ground contamination impacting on the water supply," it added.

The study authors note that although the main source of the uranium is natural, human activities are contributing to the problem through groundwater-table decline and nitrate pollution.
Our Duke in India team followed up with one of the lead researchers, Avner Vengosh (link is external), to learn more about the findings.
And what causes nitrate pollution?
A: Groundwater level decline is caused by the over-pumping of groundwater all over India, especially in northwestern India, where pumping rates exceed precipitation.
Nitrate is a known water pollutant.
Over-pumping and pollution combined present chronic challenges for India.
Q: Do any remediation technologies and preventive management practices exists to treat uranium contamination?
While uranium contamination was known in some areas, our study has revealed that this is a large scale problem all over India and thus recognizing the scope of the problem is the key for monitoring, mapping, and identifying the groundwater that should not be used as drinking water.
Through teaching water quality in my classes in the Nicholas School of the Environment, we present new data from the project to undergraduate and graduate students and receive feedback and evaluation on our research.
This combination of research and teaching is a unique aspect of Duke University’s approach to learning.

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) – Inspection reports that were just made public reveal that insects, dead birds, and squirrels have been floating inside many of NYCHA’s wooden drinking water tanks.
Chelsea Houses tenant Maria Sanchez told Fox 5 that had to buy a water cooler for drinking and cooking because the tap water is "too dark, ugly."
The investigation by the news organization City and State New York claims that water cleaners hired by NYCHA documented the contamination in inspection reports but that those reports were either changed or never handed over to the city’s Health Department.
In some instances, the reports were blotted with white-out.
The company worked with NYCHA for many decades but stopped.
Hochhauser said he experienced deplorable working conditions, late payments, and unprofessional oversight.
"We found the whole administration to be too onerous and too difficult to work for," Hochhauser said.
"The system doesn’t necessarily elicit the best contractors to work for them."
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called the reports "appalling" and "unacceptable."
A spokesperson for NYCHA told Fox 5 the housing authority has always sent its reports to the Health Department but that the agency will now take a closer look at its repair process to ensure expediency.

Kapoor’s research assessed microbial contaminants in southeast and southcentral Texas waterways following Hurricane Harvey.
His work was supported by a Rapid Response Research grant from the National Science Foundation.
"The research we conducted in the Guadalupe River after Hurricane Harvey substantiates that the large number of sewage overflows and storm-water runoff that occurred during Hurricane Harvey flooding introduced high levels of fecal bacteria into environmental waters."
After 800 wastewater treatment plants reported spills from flooding and more than two million pounds of contaminants were released into the environment, the study reports that the sewage overflows posed a risk to human and environmental health via waterborne disease outbreaks, deterioration of recreational and drinking water quality and the degradation of aquatic ecology.
The river runs from Kerr County, Texas to the San Antonio Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.
The river crested at 32 feet, around 10 feet above flood stage.
Notably, all initial water samples collected from the flooded regions of the Guadalupe River by Kapoor and his students contained E. coli and enterococci concentrations above the regulatory level for contact recreational waters.
The UTSA study suggested future studies are needed to explore relationships between human health and human-associated fecal marker levels in recreational waters impacted by sewage, treated effluents and human feces.
While Kapoor says it’s too early to tell if those beaches were impacted as a result of Hurricane Harvey, he notes that he and his students observed elevated levels of fecal bacteria at flooded sites even two to three months after Harvey.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00237