Arsenic rules may up water costs

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.

If the federal Environmental Protection Agency sets a limit for arsenic in drinking water advocated by a private council, scientists will have to invent new methods to find it, local water officials say.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday it intended to sue the EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget for failing to improve the 58-year-old standard for arsenic, which was set before anyone knew it can cause cancer.

"We have not announced when the suit will be filed, but it will be soon," attorney Erik Olson said. By law the EPA must be given 60 days' notice before a lawsuit is filed. There is no restriction for the Office of Management and Budget, he said.

The private council released new research Thursday that it says shows more than 34 million people in 25 states, including Nevada, drink tap water that has enough arsenic in it to pose a cancer risk for every 1 in 100 people. The current limit is 50 parts per billion in a quart of water, an amount equal to a fraction of a drop of ink thrown in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

The council has endorsed a stricter limit of 2 parts per billion, a standard it says would cost consumers $5 to $14 per month per household.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has detected 5 parts per billion per quart of water at its intake in Lake Mead every year since 1992, except for 1998, when the sample contained 7 parts per billion, Water Quality Manager Linda Blish said.

"We want to protect the public health as much as possible, but there needs to be reasonableness to any proposed standard," Blish said.

Very low levels of arsenic in the water, especially below 5 parts per billion, are almost impossible to measure, she said. Scientists would have to develop better detection methods to find them.

So far, the EPA is considering limits of 3 to 10 parts per billion. No proposed standard has been issued by the agency, although Congress has set a deadline of Jan. 1.

In addition, Blish noted, that most of the studies on the dangers of arsenic are based on laboratory animal test results.

A 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences determined arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer and may cause kidney and liver cancer in laboratory animals.

Individuals may remove arsenic from drinking water by distilling the water or using some expensive filters, the council study said. Drinking bottled water is no defense, it noted, because the supply may be contaminated.

While customers of large water agencies such as Southern Nevada Water Authority probably could meet the lowest limit and absorb the costs, Blish said, smaller water companies could go bankrupt.

Arsenic reaches water supplies either through natural deposits in surrounding rock or activities such as mining or making pesticides.

Tests have shown "a few hits" of 9 parts per billion in some wells used by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Blish said, but they don't consistently reach that .