Carbon County Groundwater Guardians to present free seminar
http://www.tnonline.com/node/134122
Times News
March 8, 2007
Carbon County Groundwater Guardians to present free seminar
Residents learn to protect water supplies during National Groundwater Awareness Week
The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians (CCGG) will be offering a free educational seminar entitled “How Well is Your Well” on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Towamensing Township Municipal Building, 120 Stable Road.
The Groundwater Guardians are offering the seminar, which the group normally presents for a $50 honorarium, at no cost in response to residents’ requests and in honor of National Groundwater Awareness Week, which runs March 11-17, 2007.
Recently, well water tests throughout the county began showing signs of E-Coli and other bacterial contamination. Municipal authorities, who are not responsible for the quality of the water produced by privately owned wells, reported an increase in calls from concerned residents.
“When people hear that the water may be unsafe, they often call on their local township officials for answers,” said Rick Grant, president of the Carbon County Groundwater Guardians. “But when the wells are privately owned, it’s up to the homeowner to test the water and to keep it safe. CCGG is here to teach Carbon County residents how to do that.”
The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a Pennsylvania nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that exists to educate local residents about this important natural resource and answer questions about their wells and septic systems.
“How Well is Your Well” is an educational program developed by CCGG members Brian Oram, Keith Lotier and Cindy Kerschner and covers proper well construction and maintenance as well as septic systems. Lotier is an executive with Duane Moyer Well Drilling, Oram is a Professional Geologist (PG) and Laboratory Director of the Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences Department at Wilkes University and Kerschner is a former Penn State Master Gardener and freelance writer.
According to the National Groundwater Association, Pennsylvania has more private water wells then any other state in the nation. It is estimated there are nearly 1 million private wells in the commonwealth, and they are the sole source of drinking water for most rural populations. Water well tests often reveal contamination after periods of heavy rain, when rising surface water enters poorly constructed or improperly maintained wells. While the state requires owners of municipal water wells to test water regularly, there is no law that requires homeowners to test their water.
The Groundwater Guardians recommend that all homeowners have their water tested annually. To make that easier and more affordable, the group has an agreement with Wilkes University to provide low-cost well water test kits to local residents.
“Testing your well for bacterial contamination is not difficult or expensive,” Grant said. “Attendees of this free seminar will learn how wells become contaminated, how to get a well test and what options they have if they find a problem. Brian and Keith are experts in their fields and provide a very informative program.”
The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians will make this seminar available to other townships or municipalities that request the information for residential well owners that live in their jurisdictions. For more information, call Frank Waksmunski at (570) 645-8597 or Rick Grant at (570) 325-2818.
The National Ground Water Association (NGWA), the nation’s leading authority on the use and protection of ground water, sponsors Ground Water Awareness Week. The Automotive Oil Change Association is a cosponsor and promotional partners include U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and The Groundwater Foundation.
Groundwater Guardian is a community-based program affiliated with The Groundwater Foundation, based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Frank Waksmunski, CCGG cofounder, has served on The Groundwater Foundation Council for the past five years. Waksmunski and Grant are also Penn State Master Well Owners. Through Groundwater Guardian, communities bring business, government, educators, and citizens together to work on the common goal of groundwater protection. Carbon County Groundwater Guardians (CCGG) is dedicated to protecting private well owners from illnesses caused by our drinking water. We advance good groundwater stewardship through efforts to raise awareness of residents on a variety of groundwater issues. The CCGG meets on the first Monday of every month at the Emergency Management Agency Center in Nesquehoning. Meetings start at 6:00 pm and are open to the public. Find out more on the CCGG website at www.carbonwaters.org.
Time is extended for reporting cases of polycythemia vera
http://www.tnonline.com/node/133061
Times News
March 6, 2007
Rare blood disease study continues
Time is extended for reporting cases of polycythemia vera
By DONALD R. SERFASS dserfasstnonline.com
A federal agency conducting outreach efforts to try and get a handle on the locally-reported cases of a rare blood disease has extended the time frame for reporting cases.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Atlanta, is coordinating a study regarding the incidence of local cases of polycythemia vera.
The disease is said to cause a thickening of the blood and can occur when bone marrow produces extra blood cells.
Anyone with the disease is asked to call the registry toll-free, 866-448-0242 by the end of Marcy 30 in order to participate in the initiative.
The agency originally planned to wrap up data collection in February but decided to extend the deadline for an additional month.
Results are expected to be announced in April.
Experts say polycythemia vera is associated, in part, with exposure to the chemical benzene. The chemical is one of many that had been dumped at the McAdoo Associates location, an area north, and uphill, of the Still Creek Reservoir and one which was later declared a federal Superfund site.
The Still Creek Reservoir supplies drinking water to the Tamaqua area.
Lora Werner, ATSDR Philadelphia regional representative, cautioned Monday against building up expectations based on data gleaned in the study.
“We hope it’ll a piece of the puzzle,” she said, noting that information gathered will not necessarily be a “smoking gun” in terms of identifying the cause.
In a related development, the agency will conduct DNA tests on about 45 residents in lower Luzerne and upper Schuylkill counties identified with the disease to help determine whether a genetic indicator is present.
Three of those interviewed for the testing live along Ben Titus Road, downhill from the McAdoo Associates site.
In a letter last year to Dr. Dante Picciano of the Army for a Clean Environment, William Cibulas, Ph.D., Director, Division of Health Assessment and Consultation, said: “The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s review of the information for the McAdoo site shows no evidence that any contamination from the site is affecting the water quality in the reservoir.”
Cibulas said the ATSDR consulted with the PA Department of Health and other agencies to make its determination.
“Past, regulated monitoring of the drinking water supply from the reservoir has not resulted in detections of contaminants at levels of health concern.”
At that time, Cibulas promised that his agency would look into reports concerning cases of the disease.
“The primary concern that ATSDR has heard about is the significantly elevated incidence of polycythemia vera compared to other counties in Pennsylvania based on a PA DOH Cancer Incidence Study released to the public in early 2006. ATSDR is collaborating with the PA DOH on possible follow-up activities to further evaluate the findings.”
Power Plant Coal Waste Dumps Pose High Cancer Threat
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2007
Contact: Lisa Evans, Earthjustice (781) 631-4119
Eric Schaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project (202) 296-8800
Jeff Stant, Clean Air Task Force (317) 359-1306
Dante Picciano, Army for a Clean Environment (570) 386-5744
Power Plant Coal Waste Dumps Pose High Cancer Threat; Environmental Groups Demand Federal Controls
New EPA Risk Assessment finds extraordinary cancer risk; lack of federal regulations endanger U.S. water supplies
Washington, D.C. The risk of getting cancer from coal ash lagoons is 10,000 times greater than government safety standards allow, according to a draft report from the Environmental Protection Agency obtained by an environmental group. Although the EPA acknowledges this risk, it has neglected to adopt regulations that will limit exposure and protect against the health threats of America’s second-largest industrial solid waste stream, coal ash.
While EPA has not yet formally released the revised assessment, environmental groups received a summary of the draft, which indicates that the cancer risk for adults and children drinking groundwater contaminated with arsenic from coal combustion waste dumps can be as high as 1 in 100 – 10,000 times higher than EPA’s regulatory goals for reducing cancer risks
EPA’s failure to limit pollution from coal combustion waste, or coal ash, has poisoned surface and groundwater supplies in at least 23 states, by EPA’s own admission. Coal combustion waste is the solid waste produced by coal-fired power plants, which produce approximately 129 million tons of the waste each year. The waste is contaminated with toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium and selenium. There are currently about 600 existing coal ash landfills and surface impoundments in the U.S.
There are currently plans to build over 150 coal-fired power plants in the United States by 2030. Pollution from coal ash impoundments will undoubtedly worsen unless EPA takes the necessary steps to protect neighborhoods and communities from this dangerous pollution source. EPA acknowledges that coal ash landfills and surface impoundments have contaminated water above federal drinking water standards in the following states: Texas, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The agency also acknowledges that more cases of drinking water damage occur, but that monitoring systems are not in place to detect contamination at a large percentage of the existing dumps.
A soon to be released study will show similarly contaminated waters from coal ash (fly ash) disposal in Pennsylvania. According to the Earth Justice Network, there are 18 waste-fuel-burning power plants currently operating in the United States. Fourteen are in Pennsylvania and five are in Schuylkill County, which has more than any other county in the nation. Schuylkill County’s Ben Titus Road community – where the Army for a Clean Environment has counted as many as eight cases of polycythemia vera, a rare bone marrow cancer – is adjacent to Northeastern Power Co., which burns anthracite coal waste or “culm” as its primary fuel and diesel or fuel oil as a secondary fuel, according to the Energy Justice Network. The resulting coal ash waste is then used for mine reclamation on adjacent lands as part of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s “beneficial use” program.
“We are now asking our elected officials to enact laws for the safe and proper disposal of these industrial wastes, ” stated Dr. Dante Picciano of the Army for a Clean Environment. “It is time for our legislators to stand up and do what is right for the health and safety of the people of Pennsylvania.”
A broad coalition of 27 environmental and public health groups, led by Earthjustice, Clean Air Task Force and the Environmental Integrity Project, recently submitted a proposal to EPA detailing ways to protect against pollution from the millions of tons of coal ash disposed annually by U.S. coal-fired power plants. The groups also requested that EPA take immediate action to investigate and abate pollution at coal ash dump sites.
“It’s very simple,” said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans. “Coal combustion waste currently disposed without adequate safeguards poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to health and the environment in dozens of communities throughout the country. EPA has made no effort to protect the public against these pollution sources for over seven years. We believe it is time to act.”
In 2000, EPA committed to establishing regulations for coal ash disposal. Since then, the agency has met repeatedly with industrial polluters and will soon issue a Notice of Data Availability (NODA), which is expected to defer federal waste regulation in favor of a voluntary industry agreement. However, the voluntary industry agreement, announced by a consortium of coal-fired electric utilities last fall, promises no controls on the hundreds of existing waste dumps and gives industry three years to place monitoring wells around dumps within a mile of drinking water sources.
Simple measures such as isolating the waste from groundwater, prohibiting dumping of coal ash in sand and gravel pits, and lining landfills and surface impoundments would have a huge impact on limiting pollution from these facilities.
“The people who are exposed to a greater cancer risk by drinking water poisoned by coal ash landfills and surface impoundments need to be heard,” said Jeff Stant, Director of the Power Plant Waste-Safe Disposal Project for the Clean Air Task Force. “EPA has ignored affected communities for far too long.”
“Many coal ash disposal sites lack the most basic safeguards such as liners, covers, and groundwater monitoring–standards that are routinely required for household trash at sanitary landfills,” states Eric Schaeffer, Director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “In fact, in many cases, the operators are simply dumping the waste straight into groundwater and face no cleanup requirements by states.”
The National Academies of Science (NAS) found in a March 2006 report studying the practice by utilities of dumping coal combustion wastes in coal mines, that high contaminant levels in leachate, or runoff, from coal ash dumps has contaminated drinking water and caused considerable environmental damage, including the local extinction of multiple species. The NAS report cited EPA’s commitment in 2000 to promulgate federal regulations to require adequate safeguards for disposal of toxic ash and called for the development of regulations mandating safeguards for minefilling. The Environmental Protection Agency, nevertheless, has neglected issuing these much-needed safeguards.
Simple Radon Test Can Help Prevent Lung Cancer
If there is radon in your home, it’s most likely in your private well water too.
News for Release: Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) *
Simple Radon Test Can Help Prevent Lung Cancer
*Contact: Roxanne Smith, (202) 564-4355 / smith.roxanne@epa.gov
(Washington, D.C. – Jan. 4, 2007) Each year, nearly 20,000 people die from lung cancer caused by exposure to radon. A common source of exposure to radon that can be avoided is exposure in the home, yet only one in five homeowners has actually tested for radon. January is National Radon Action Month and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is urging people to test their homes.
“Healthy homes make for healthy families,” said Bill Wehrum, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation. “EPA is encouraging people to test for radon ‚Äì a simple step to providing peace of mind.”
Radon is an invisible radioactive gas that seeps into your home from underground, and can reach harmful levels if trapped indoors. The only way to know if your home contains high radon levels is to test for it. Nearly 80 percent of American homes have not been tested for radon, even though a simple test costing as little as $25 can help detect a possible radon problem. If radon is found, homeowners should consult with qualified professionals who can reduce radon exposure for a cost similar to many common home improvement repairs. State radon offices can help the public find qualified radon professionals.
“The invisible and odorless nature of radon makes it a real challenge when trying to raise awareness about its public health risk,” said acting U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu. “Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, and it is completely preventable. You can protect your family with a simple first step, and I urge people to take action to prevent radon exposure by testing their homes.”
EPA is launching a campaign to inform people about radon and is working with organizations across the country to educate the public on how to protect themselves from radon exposure in their homes. Local government agencies, non-profit organizations, schools, health care providers, radon professionals, and other community groups will work together to host events and activities to increase awareness about radon, promote testing and mitigation, and advance the use of radon-resistant new construction.
More information about Radon Action Month:
http://www.epa.gov/radon/rnactionmonth.html
Get your home tested:
http://www.epa.gov/radon/radontest.html
Environment the winner as court upholds waterway buffers
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently ended a two-year legal battle over how the state protects our most pristine waters. The court upheld an Appellate Court decision approving new rules designed to curtail storm water runoff, providing a major victory for New Jersey’s water systems and the millions who rely on them for drinking water.
One of the new rules expanded to 300 feet the buffers around our cleanest waters — those designated for Category 1 protection, meaning no measurable deterioration in water quality would be allowed. No building is generally allowed inside these buffers, since development destroys the natural function of the land. In addition, it usually adds a lot of pollution as rain water washes oil and other chemicals off parking lots, lawns, roofs and other “artificial” surfaces; all this extra crud, concentrated near a water body, is beyond the natural capacity of the land to filter before the water reaches the stream, lake or ground water table.
Seeing that the buffer rule would take a lot of valuable land off the paving schedule, the New Jersey Builders Association argued the DEP was dabbling in land use decisions that fall outside their jurisdiction. They sued and lost at every step, with the Supreme Court finally refusing to even hear their final appeal.
Read the full news story at the Asbury Park Press.
Wastewater Issues Get Wormy
Recent research indicates that earthworms may be an important initial step by which organic contaminants could enter the terrestrial food web. Wastewater treatment plants process millions of gallons of mixed solid and liquid human waste daily, returning treated effluent to surface and ground water and disposing of the residual sludge. Roughly half of the many thousands of dry tons of treated sludge (usually referred to as biosolids) generated annually in the U.S. are applied to agricultural soils as a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Recent USGS research has identified a wide variety of organic contaminants (such as disinfectants, pharmaceuticals, synthetic fragrances, and plasticizers) that can be present in biosolids, often in concentrations tens to thousands of times higher than found in treated liquid waste. One concern related to the practice of land application of biosolids is whether any of these organic contaminants find their way into soil-dwelling organisms. To address this concern, USGS and Eastern Washington University scientists collaborated on a study of earthworms collected from agricultural soils in the Midwest and Western United States that had been exposed to land-applied biosolids. The samples were analyzed for a diverse array of pharmaceuticals and other organic contaminants (77 target compounds were measured). Soil and earthworm samples were collected from select agricultural fields early and late in the growing season. Thirty-one compounds including triclosan (household disinfectant), several fragrances, caffeine, and fluoxetine (the antidepressant Prozac) were detected in earthworms from biosolid-applied fields, with tissue concentrations ranging from 100’s to 1000’s of micrograms per kilogram (parts per billion). These results demonstrate that earthworms can accumulate a range of these chemically diverse organic contaminants within their tissues, and may be an important initial step by which these compounds could enter the terrestrial food web. For more information contact Ed Furlong, USGS, at efurlong@usgs.gov or 303-236-3941, and Chad Kinney, Eastern Washington University, at ckinney@mail.ewu.edu or 509-359-7932.
Contaminants Lower Reproductive Health of Gila River Fish
Downstream of Phoenix, southern Arizona’s Gila River is primarily recharged by irrigation return water, storm water, and wastewater treatment plant effluent, and fish and aquatic invertebrate habitats are degraded. Largemouth bass, common carp and channel catfish from the Gila had elevated levels of organochlorine pesticides, many of which have been associated with estrogen-like effects in fish. Reproductive biomarkers, including gonad size and hormone concentrations, were notably different in fish from the Gila River when compared to fish from the Colorado River, indicating that organochlorine contaminants may be affecting the reproductive health of fish populations in the Gila River downstream of Phoenix. For more information, contact Jo Ellen Hinck at jhink@usgs.gov or 573-876-1808.
Rocky Mountain High — Mercury in Cold Environments of the Western United States
Atmospheric deposition of mercury in remote areas in the Western United States is sufficient to pose a risk to human and ecosystem health at sites favorable for methylation, a process in which mercury in the environment is converted into a highly toxic form that accumulates in organisms and is amplified up the food chain. USGS researchers and partners measured mercury in snowpack samples during 2003-2005 as part of the National Park Service Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project. Eight high-altitude, high-latitude sites were selected for study in or near national parks in Colorado, Montana, California, Oregon, and Alaska. Mercury levels were lowest in the North Cascades, highest in the Rocky Mountains, and were related to the amount of particulate carbon in the snow, with both found at higher levels in forested sites than in open meadows. Seasonal variations were lowest in Denali National Park and highest in Olympic National Park. Mercury concentrations were higher during the warm season than the snow season. Total annual fluxes of mercury were as high as 10 mg m-2 at some sites in the Rocky Mountains, which receive mercury deposition equal to that in the Upper Midwest or Northeast. Global and regional sources of mercury emissions contribute to its deposition, with regional sources likely contributing more in the Rocky Mountains, where there are more upwind sources of emissions. For more information, contact Don Campbell at Donald.Campbell@usgs.gov or 303-236-4882, ext. 298.
Pharmaceuticals in Long Island’s Groundwater
Pharmaceuticals can infiltrate groundwater systems in areas susceptible to wastewater contamination. In studies by Stony Brook University and the U.S. Geological Survey of ground-water wells in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY, near permitted wastewater treatment facilities discharging to ground water, scientists detected pharmaceuticals in concentrations generally 1-200 ng/L (parts per trillion).These vanishingly small concentrations are several orders of magnitude below the concentrations where any effects have been observed or predicted for the compounds measured in this study. Acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine (anti-epileptic), cotinine (human metabolite of nicotine), paraxanthine (human metabolite of caffeine), and sulfamethoxazole (antibiotic) were found most often in both studies. However compounds were more frequently detected in the shallower wells. These occurrences, and laboratory studies, suggest that of these compounds, caffeine, carbamazepine, paraxanthine, and sulfamethoxazole are more persistent in groundwater and have the most potential for transport in the subsurface. For more information, contact Mark J. Benotti at mbenotti@usgs.gov or 631-736-0783 x126.
A Happy Medium? Antidepressants in Aquatic Systems
Wastewater treatment plants do a remarkable job at removing the bulk of chemicals from the waste stream. But recent USGS studies have shown that a wide range of pharmaceuticals and other human-caused waste compounds remain despite wastewater treatment and are discharged to receiving waters across North America. Antidepressants are a commonly used class of pharmaceuticals whose pharmacological effects may extend beyond humans to aquatic organisms present in surface water systems that receive treated wastewater discharge. Yet few methods exist to detect antidepressants in the environment, and their effects on aquatic organisms are only beginning to be understood. Recently, USGS researchers developed a method to study the distribution and fate of antidepressants and their breakdown products in aquatic environments, including municipal wastewater and surface water. Venlafaxine (Effexor) was the predominant antidepressant researchers found in wastewater and river-water samples from Colorado, Iowa, and Minnesota, though other antidepressants were found as well. Typical concentrations of individual antidepressants ranged from a few nanograms per liter to thousands of nanograms per liter (for Venalfaxine) in wastewater. This indicates that wastewater is a point source of antidepressants into the environment, at concentrations that may impact aquatic life. For more information, please contact Edward T. Furlong, USGS, at efurlong@usgs.gov or 303-236-3941; or Melissa Schultz, College of Wooster, Wooster, OH at mschultz@wooster.edu or 330-263-2645.