Feds sued over arsenic limit in drinking water

Wednesday, May 10, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the federal government in U.S. District Court today for failing to set a lower limit on arsenic in the nation's drinking water.

In 1996 Congress ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to revise the limit for arsenic in drinking water by January 2000. Last year scientific advisers concluded that the current standard allowing 50 drops in an Olympic-size swimming pool did not protect people drinking from 450 water systems nationwide.

The defense council urges the EPA to set the limit at 3 drops of arsenic in the pool. The American Water Works Association and the World Health Organization suggest 10 drops. The EPA has proposed 5 drops.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said homes from Las Vegas to Reno had the cancer-causing element at some time, because Nevada's ground water has some of the highest amounts of arsenic in the nation. The Southern Nevada Water Authority recorded a level higher than 50 parts per billion, which is the current limit, once between 1992 and 1999, an official said.

The water authority can meet whatever level is eventually set, but small rural Nevada water systems would have difficulty meeting the 5-drop limit, the Nevada Rural Water Association said. It could cost $350 million to systems to that standard and $18 million a year to operate them, the association said.

The proposed regulation is under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. EPA expects to announce the new limit in a month, then an extensive review and public hearings will be scheduled.