Deep Problem
by Kirsten Carlson
Everyday Whatcom County residents drink water from their faucets. Lorraine Morlock is no different except her water must go through a special system to filter out arsenic.
One of the mandatory steps Morlock had to take when she began building her home near Ferndale, Wash., last year was testing her well for arsenic. When Morlock received the test results, she said she was shocked to learn she would have to spend more than $3,500 on a water filtration system. The level of arsenic in her well was higher than the 50 parts per billion limit then allowed in private wells in Whatcom County.
"I think (the arsenic filter) is basically a big huge water filter and it was a lot of money that I was not planning on spending," Morlock said.
In the future, more Whatcom County homeowners will have to install arsenic filters like Morlock. In April 2002, the Whatcom County Council approved an ordinance to reduce the maximum allowable level of arsenic in private wells from 50 ppb to 10 ppb. The decision preempted a federal rule that required drinking water in public wells to contain no more than 10 ppb of arsenic by Jan. 23, 2006.
The County Council started a controversy by reducing the allowable amount of arsenic to federal levels nearly four years before the Bush Administration required the change. Whatcom County’s new standards went into effect in May 2002. The ordinance the County Council passed, however, applied only to new construction where private wells were being used, while the national rule applied to public wells.
Environmental health supervisor for Whatcom County Paul Chudek said arsenic is released into the environment through natural processes or through human action. He said arsenic can cause chronic diseases — meaning that long term exposure to it increases the risk of adverse health effects, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, nervous system damage and several forms of cancer.
Chudek said the arsenic that affects water supplies in Whatcom County comes from rock formations that naturally contain arsenic.
According to the EPA Web site, lowering the allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water from 50 ppb to 10 ppb will prevent five to eight deaths from bladder cancer each year. The EPA Web site also said lowering the standard will prevent 16 to 22 deaths from lung cancer per year. According to the Web site, the change will also prevent diabetes and heart disease.
Whatcom County Councilmember Dan McShane said he first suggested changing the county standard at a health board meeting.
"The scientific evidence was there that arsenic is a problem and we shouldn’t wait around for the state to change their regulations," McShane said.
He said that when he proposed changing the arsenic standard for private wells, the more conservative members of the County council thought he was doing so as a slap in the face to the Bush administration because the administration was not requiring the standard for public wells to be raised until 2006.
"I did not believe and do not believe that Whatcom County, who has not done studies on safe levels of arsenic in drinking water, should preempt the federal government in determining the appropriate levels of arsenic," said Sam Crawford, the only County Councilmember to oppose the ordinance. "I know that we do not have the research capabilities or the science at the local level and that’s why national standards are set."
Rich Emerson, government affairs officer for the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County, said he agreed with Crawford.
"I think that it is interesting that Washington state or Whatcom County would take action (four) years before federal standards come into play, and in my view it is all part of environmental extremism that has gotten to epidemic proportions," he said.
Emerson said he thinks that the council should have taken more time before making the decision.
"The County Council has a history of making instantaneous decisions based on faulty information and this is another example of this," he said.
McShane said the 50 ppb standard was in place for more than 50 years before former President Bill Clinton’s administration changed the standard to 10 ppb. The original standard was based on years of scientific research, including studies conducted by the National Academy of Sciences. Bush decided to put the change on hold in early 2001, said John Millett, press officer for the EPA.
"It was a complex rule and the new administration and leadership wanted a chance to review science and data backing the rule so they could sign off on it with confidence," he said.
Sierra Club Environmental Quality Program Director Ed Hopkins said he thinks Bush had other motives for putting the rule on hold.
"I believe that he did that to satisfy mining and industrial contributors to his election efforts because they would have been hurt by more stringent arsenic standards," Hopkins said. "It would have cost them money to meet those standards."
In October 2001, the Bush administration and EPA decided to re-implement the 10 ppb standard, Millet said.
"I think he changed it because there was a public outcry and people don’t want to be exposed to arsenic in their drinking water, and when they found out what Bush was doing, they were upset about it," Hopkins said.
The Whatcom County ordinance affects a relatively small number of people. Chudek said he expects between 20 and 25 residences will fail to meet the new standard each year. According to the EPA’s Web site, the national ruling will affect 74,000 systems across the country and 4,000 of those systems will need to take steps to decrease their arsenic level to 10 ppb.
Chudek said the cost of the water treatment systems ranges from $2,000 to $10,000, depending on the original quality of the water.
Morlock said she was aware of the dangers of arsenic but was not happy about having to pay for the system.
She said she would not have gotten the filtration system if the county did not require it.
"I guess it’s a good thing that they’re doing it, but I don’t know how important it is that it goes that low (to 10 parts per billion) verses a couple parts per billion higher," Morlock said.