Getting the drop on water safety

Residents can search database, learn how to reduce chemicals

The cool, refreshing liquid pouring from your kitchen faucet may be more than just water. In the typical South Florida home, your water may contain potentially harmful chemicals, such as hexavalent chromium, chlorate and radium-226.

You can learn what’s in your drinking water with a new database that allows you to type in your ZIP code and find out which contaminants are going along for the ride when you turn on the faucet.

“When most Americans drink a glass of tap water, they’re also getting a dose of industrial or agricultural contaminants linked to cancer, brain and nervous system damage, developmental defects, fertility problems or hormone disruption,” states a report from the Environmental Working Group, the nonprofit organization that prepared the database, which was released

Wednesday.

The goal of the project is not to freak people out over contaminants, many of which are commonly found in tap water and most of which won’t end up harming the vast majority of people. Nor is it to beat up on local water utilities, which generally do their best with the water flowing into their treatment plants and with the legal standards they’re required to apply.

The idea is to allow people to learn what’s in their drinking water, tell them what steps they can take to protect themselves and push for stricter federal limits on harmful chemicals in water.

“The likelihood is that there are contaminants in your water,” Nneka Leiba, director of Healthy Living Science for Environmental Working Group, said in an interview. “We don’t want people to get so flabbergasted and overwhelmed that they don’t know what to do, drink soda or drink bottled water. That’s not what we want at all. What we’re saying is in order to fix a problem, first you have to know about it.”

The simplest and most immediate action is to install a water filter, which will reduce the concentration of many contaminants. Another step advocated by the group is to press for stronger laws to protect sources of drinking water, such as lakes and rivers, as well as tougher limits on how much of each contaminant the drinking water can contain.

In South Florida, where drinking water is drawn from groundwater, there are several common contaminants.

Hexavalent chromium, which can cause cancer, can come from industrial sources and occurs naturally in mineral deposits where groundwater is found. Chlorate, which can cause thyroid and nervous system problems in young children, is a byproduct of the water disinfection process. Radium-226 and uranium are radioactive elements that naturally occur in minerals.

And then there’s a group of four cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes that form when organic matter in the water reacts with chemicals used to disinfect it. It was this group of pollutants that spiked in Pembroke Pines earlier this year, causing the city’s water to fail federal standards and leading the state health department to tell the city to warn pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems to consult their doctor before drinking it.

The Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department, which serves about 573,000 people, largely west of coastal cities, reported chlorate above the state average and hexavalent chromium above health guidelines defined by the Environmental Working Group but below state and national averages.

Shawn Reed, spokesman for the system, said the system provides safe, clean water that meets federal water quality standards. The system would reduce the levels of both contaminants if required by the government to do so, although he said it’s unclear what it would cost.

“It would require some additional filtration,” he said. “It’s not something we have a dollar figure for. If the EPA established that as a legal standard, we absolutely would address it, as we do currently for everything else.”

In Hollywood, the database showed arsenic, chlorate, hexavalent chromium and trihalomethanes. But city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said the latest waterquality report showed no arsenic. She said the use of chlorine to treat water produced two of the other contaminants and that eliminating chlorination would open up the water supply to worse contaminants, such as E. coli. And she said the city’s water met federal health standards.

“We go by the EPA standards and we report our finding every year to the Department of Health,” she said. “We can only go by the standards of agencies that regulate us.”

To produce its database, the Environmental Working Group analyzed reports filed with the state and federal governments from 2010 to 2015 by 48,712 water utilities throughout the United States. They looked for contaminants that exceeded federal or state health guidelines, although not necessarily legal limits. They found 93 chemicals linked to cancer, 78 linked to nervous system damage, 38 linked to fertility problems and 45 that could disrupt hormonal functions.

The report says the federal government has failed to comply with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the landmark 1974 law that established national standards for tap water. The federal government hasn’t conducted the required six-year reviews on contaminants covered by federal standards, hasn’t added standards for contaminants that are not currently regulated and failed to set standards that take into account the greater vulnerability of children, pregnant women, the elderly and other vulnerable groups, the group says.

The EPA released a statement Tuesday, saying that more than 90 percent of the nation’s water systems meet all federal standards and that these standards apply to more than 90 contaminants.

“America’s drinking water remains among the safest in the world, and protecting drinking water is EPA’s top priority,” the statement said. “We take our commitment to protecting public health seriously, and when issues arise we work closely with states, local governments and water suppliers to review and address, as appropriate.”

But while the concentration of a particular contaminant may be low enough to meet federal standards, it may still exceed the level recommended by scientists. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA is allowed to take into account the cost of water treatment in establishing the maximum level for each contaminant, allowing the standard to be set higher than the optimal health standard.

“We want them to know that while their water may meet federal standards, or legal limits, that doesn’t mean that their water is safe,” Leiba said.

The simplest action people can take is to install a water filter, which will reduce the concentration of many contaminants.

CARLINE JEAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER