Safe Drinking Water What

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Safe Drinking Water Whats New?

• Spring, 2008
• Drinking Water Program
• Office of Environmental Public Health
• Public Health Division
• Oregon Department of Human Services

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Topics

• Drinking water and public health
• Public water systems
• State/county drinking water program
• EPA drinking water standards
• How safe is our drinking water?
• Emerging contaminants

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Drinking Water Matters!

• Fundamental for health
• Fundamental for quality of life
• Fundamental for the economy
• Fundamental for fire protection

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Where Do Drinking Water Contaminants Come From?

• Pollution of the source of supply - natural and
  people-caused
• Water treatment failure
• Water treatment chemicals
• By-products of water treatment
• Water system materials, coatings
• Pipe breaks, leaks in storage tanks
• Cross connections
• Plumbing materials

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Protecting Drinking Water from Source to Tap

• Source water selection/protection
• Water treatment
• Distribution system protection
• Management and operations competence

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Drinking Water Whos Involved?

• Public Water Systems
• PROVIDE safe water
• State/County Public Health/Partner Agencies
• ASSURE health standards are met
• US EPA
• SET standards to protect health

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Public Water System - Ground Water Source
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Public Water System - Surface Water Source
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Oregon Public Water Systems
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Oregon Public Water Systems by Size
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Oregon Population Served by Public Water Systems
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Basic Health Responsibilities of Public Water
Systems

• Take water samples
• Report test results and treatment data
• Take action when standards not met
• Notify public when standards not met
• Notify public when tests not done/reported

• Keep records
• Maintain minimum 20 psi pressure
• Prepare/submit plans
• Conduct cross connection program
• Supervision by a certified operator
• Respond to user complaints

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State Drinking Water Authorities and Rules

• ORS 448 Water Systems
• OAR 333-061 Public Water Systems
• Primacy Agreement with USEPA

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State/County Drinking Water Program

• Mission - Assure Oregonians safe drinking water
• Goals
• Contamination of public water systems is
  prevented or reduced, by protecting drinking
  water sources and adequately treating water
• Water system personnel have knowledge, skills,
  and abilities to produce safe drinking water

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Drinking Water

• Goals (continued)
• Public water system facilities are adequate to
  reliably and continuously produce safe drinking
  water
• Water users are knowledgeable about safe drinking
  water and support their local water supplier
• All safe drinking water standards are fully
  implemented and met by water suppliers

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Drinking Water Advisory Committee Members

• Large water systems
• Pacific NW water assoc.
• OR Assoc. of Water Utilities
• Special districts
• Cities
• Private-owned systems
• Certified labs
• Engineering firms

• Local health officials
• OR Environmental Health Assoc.
• League of Women Voters
• Environmental groups
• Plumbers/backflow testers
• Water consumers
• Watershed councils

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Federal Drinking Water Authorities and Rules

• US Environmental Protection Agency
• Safe Drinking Water Act
• 1974
• 1986 amendments
• 1996 amendments
• Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR parts 141,
  142, 143, 149)

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USEPA Functions

• Establish national drinking water standards
• Oversee and assist state Primacy programs
• Administer grants and work plans of states
• Directly oversee tribal water systems
• Directly implement federal drinking water rules
  until state applies for and receives Primacy

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Which Contaminants Does EPA Regulate?

• May have adverse effect on the health of persons,
  and
• Known or likely to occur in public drinking water
  systems with frequencies and levels of health
  concern, and
• Regulation presents meaningful opportunity for
  health risk reduction for persons served by
  public water systems

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Setting Standards - Health Effects Matter

• Acute effects occur within hours or days of the
  time that a person consumes a contaminant at high
  levels. Example acute gastrointestinal illness.
• Chronic effects occur after people consume a
  contaminant at low levels over many years.
  Examples cancers, organ damage

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Setting Standards - Exposure Matters

• Long-term exposure same people daily
  (communities, schools, workplaces)
• Acute contaminants, and
• Chronic contaminants
• Short-term exposure different people daily
  (campgrounds, parks, motels, restaurants)
• Acute contaminants
• EPA bases drinking water exposure on 2 liters per
  day

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Forms of EPA Drinking Water Standards

• Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) no known
  or anticipated adverse health effects, with
  margin of safety
• Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) enforceable
  standard set as close as feasible to MCLG
  considering technology, treatment, cost, field
  conditions
• Treatment Technique (TT) in lieu of MCL when
  levels cant be measured
• Action Level (AL) triggers action by water
  supplier

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EPA Regulations, Trends

• 1976 22 regulated contaminants, 20 pages of
  federal rules
• 2005 91 regulated contaminants, 280 pages of
  federal rules
• 2008 ___ pages of federal rules
• Newer rules are highly complex, targeted risk

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91 Regulated Drinking Water Contaminants

• 7 Microbials (bacteria, viruses, parasites)
• 7 Disinfection by-products (trihalomethanes,
  haloacetic acids)
• 16 Inorganic chemicals (arsenic, nitrate, lead)
• 56 Organic chemicals (solvents, pesticides)
• 5 Radiologic contaminants (uranium)

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Newest EPA Standards (2005-07)

• Parasitic microorganisms (Cryptosporidium in
  source waters)
• Disinfection by-products (distribution hot
  spots)
• Arsenic (increased protection)
• Groundwater (viruses)
• Lead and Copper revisions (improve education)

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Setting Future EPA Standards

• Contaminant Candidate List
• Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring
• National Contaminant Occurrence Database
• Consider five contaminants every five years,
  regulate or not

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Contaminant Candidate List 3 - 2008

• 7500 contaminants evaluated
• 104 candidate contaminants listed
• 11 microbials waterborne pathogens
• 93 chemicals
• Commercial chemicals
• Biological toxins
• Pesticides
• Disinfection by-products

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How Safe Is Oregons Drinking Water?

• Safer than it was!
• Not as safe as it should be

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Oregon Waterborne Disease Outbreaks (bacteria,
viruses, parasites )
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Whats Accomplished in Oregon?

• Getting surface water sources filtered and
  disinfected
• Reducing Lead and copper at the tap
• Identifying and reducing inorganics
• Identifying and reducing organics

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Unfiltered Water Systems (1988-2004)
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Lead at the Tap (1992-2005)
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Top 3 Inorganics
Contaminant (MCL, mg/l) No. of detections No. of water systems Low-High Concentration mg/l
Nitrate (10) 2070 436 3-28.5
Arsenic (0.010) 397 194 0.010-0.411
Fluoride (4) 22 15 2.4-5.9
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Top 3 Volatile Organics(75 water systems with
detections)
Contaminant (MCL, mg/l) No. of detections No. of water systems Low-High Concentration mg/l
Tetrachloroethylene (0.005) 99 21 gt0-0.0177
Xylenes (10) 40 22 gt0-1.86
Toluene (1) 26 25 gt0-0.0548
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Top 3 Synthetic Organics(53 water systems with
detections)
Contaminant (MCL, mg/l) No. of detections No. of water systems Low-High Concentration mg/l
Phthlalate (0.006) 39 33 gt0-0.25
Ethylene Dibromide (0.00005) 8 2 gt0-0.0016
Pentachlorophenol (0.001) 7 7 gt0-0.0007
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Oregon Drinking Water Benchmark (69)

• Establish goals for safe drinking water and
  track/report progress annually to Oregon Progress
  Board, legislature, public
• Two-part benchmark
• Population
• Water systems
• Ties directly to EPA national measures and goals,
  and allows state-by-state comparisons

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Benchmark - Population
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Benchmark Water Systems
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What Threats Remain?

• Chronic diseases
• from long-term exposure to chemicals
• increased potential as population grows?
• Smaller systems
• dont reliably meet all health standards all the
  time
• increased potential as population grows?
• Very small systems
• no assistance from state or local programs for
  years
• increased potential as population grows?

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What Threats Remain?

• Current standards
• Not yet fully implemented
• Future standards
• Need to implement
• Emerging contaminants
• Occurrence?
• Significance?

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Adding State/County Public Health Capacity (2007)

• Approved current fees raised in 2006
• Increased general funding,
• Authorized sanitary survey inspection fee, and
• Established statutory Drinking Water Advisory
  Committee

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The Fully Capable Program

• Adopts and implements all EPA rules
• Conducts effective and timely oversight of all
  public water systems
• Large and small
• EPA and non-EPA
• Addresses and prevents significant noncompliance
• Performs timely sanitary surveys and assures
  deficiencies are corrected
• Assures timely, accurate, and complete water
  system data

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Capacity Building Completed Setting Up

• 2007-09 legislatively approved budget
• Amended county/ag intergovernmental agreements
  for drinking water
• Adopted sanitary survey inspection fee
• Revised Oregon Drinking Water Benchmark
• Received 2-year Primacy extension from EPA for
  new rules

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Capacity Building Underway - Workforce

• Organization revision
• Unit manager developmental assignments
• Lead worker assignments
• Recruitment 11 new FTE
• Initial state/county staff training (April and
  beyond)

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Capacity Building Remaining - By July 09

• Adopt EPA rules and apply for Primacy
• Long-term 2 surface water treatment rule
• Stage 2 disinfection by-products rule
• Ground water rule
• HB 3469 (2007) Treatment technique variance rule

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Remaining Drinking Water Concerns and Issues
(2009)

• Private wells (arsenic)
• Monitoring Oregons surface and ground waters for
  potential contaminants identified in drinking
  water source assessments (pilot with DEQ)
• Pesticides
• Pharmaceuticals
• Flooding and landslides (2007 winter storm)
• Growth and development outside urban areas

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Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water!

• AP survey of 62 large water providers and
  independent researchers
• Pharmaceuticals in 24 systems, serving 41
  million people
• Antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers
  and sex hormones
• Detections at very low levels (ppb-ppt)
• Most detections occur, or are at higher levels,
  downstream from wastewater treatment plants

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Portland Drinking Water Sources
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Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs)

• Thousands of diverse chemical compounds used by
  people, pets, and livestock
• Virtually constant loading into the environment
• Prescription drug use has increased by 12 since
  2003

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Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs)

• Includes prescription and over-the-counter
  substances
• Antibiotics, steroids, synthetic hormones
• Therapeutic drugs, herbal remedies
• Cosmetics, fragrances, shampoos, sun screen
  additives
• Veterinary drugs
• Feed additives

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Source of PPCPs

• Agriculture Animal waste, feed supplements
• Veterinary drug use, especially antibiotics and
  steroids
• Wastewater Treatment Facilities
• Land application of sludge

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PPCPs Not Fully Metabolized by the Body
Discarding unused drugs and personal care
products down the toilet is a common but poor
disposal method.
This drawing shows the pathway between homes and
septic or municipal sewage facilities.
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Disposal of Drugs -Federal Guidelines
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USGS Reconnaissance Study 1999-2000 139 Streams
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PPCPs in 1999-2000 Reconnaissance Study
Surface Water (139) Groundwater (47) Drinking Water (74)
Non-Drugs 81 15 64
Antibiotics 48 26 26
Pharmaceuticals 32 6 23
Metabolites 69 43 19
DEET 74 35 19
Caffeine 71 11 54
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Treatment Effectiveness

• Major source is from wastewater treatment plant
  effluent discharged to surface water
• Surface water treatment, study evaluated
• Conventional/Direct filtration
• Slow sand
• Variety of coagulants/conditioners
• Limited ability to remove these chemicals

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Ranking of Treatment Methods Removal of PPCPs

1. Reverse Osmosis (RO)
2. Nanofiltration
3. Advanced Oxidation (AOP)
4. Granular Activated Carbon (GAC)
5. Ozone
6. Chlorine
7. Micro/Ultrafiltration
8. UV

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Pesticides and PPCPs in Drinking Water

• Concentrations of many of these chemicals are
  very low, in the ng to ug range
• Generally more than one contaminant in any given
  water source
• Human health impacts at these low concentrations
  unknown but probably low
• Studies lacking however, and possible health
  impacts of additive or synergistic effects
  uncertain

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Pesticides and PPCPs in Drinking Water

• Regulation of these chemicals via the SDWA in the
  near future?
• Impact on aquatic organisms higher because of
  constant exposure
• Conventional treatment is not an effective
  barrier for these compounds

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For More Information!

• 971-673-0405
• oregon.gov/dhs/ph/dwp