Report Accuses EPA of Laxity on Arsenic in Water

Millions of Americans have a 1 in 100 lifetime risk of contracting cancer from the levels of arsenic in tap water, according to a report released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Average levels of arsenic in tap water treated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power place about 0.1%--or one in 1,000--of its 3.6 million consumers in danger of cancer, according to the report by the Washington-based environmental watchdog group.

The council is threatening to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unless it immediately improves its 58-year-old standards for arsenic levels. Attorneys for the nonprofit group accuse the EPA of ignoring calls to reduce arsenic levels, complaints that stretch back to 1974.

EPA officials say more stringent standards are expected to take effect next year.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring substance commonly found in rocks. Lethal at extremely high levels, the toxin makes its way into water sources during well drilling or as a byproduct of industrial solvents that seep below ground, experts said.

California, which follows EPA standards, ranks among the worst states for levels of arsenic in treated and untreated water, the council’s report found.

It notes that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a water wholesaler that supplies 17 million Southern California customers outside Los Angeles, allows arsenic levels of about 3 parts per billion, considered by the council to be the safest feasible level. Tap water in other parts of the state has arsenic levels as high as 70 parts per billion, well above the current EPA standard of 50 parts per billion.

The EPA is proposing a new maximum level of 5 parts per billion, according to an unreleased report under consideration by the federal Office of Management and Budget. The council said the EPA should reduce maximum arsenic levels in treated water to 3 parts per billion.

The difference, said council senior attorney Gail Ruderman Feuer, can be measured in the greater risk of hundreds more cancer cases over a lifetime.

“Five is unacceptable,” she said, adding that EPA standards for other toxins are equivalent to an arsenic standard of 0.5 parts per billion.

During a news conference held in the group’s West Los Angeles office, Feuer criticized EPA officials for delays. “While the government is dragging its feet, tens of millions of Americans continue to drink water with high levels of arsenic,” she said.

EPA officials said Thursday that the agency will take the report into consideration when it seeks public comment on the new standards later this year. “We will propose a far stronger standard in the near future,” said EPA spokeswoman Robin Woods.

The agency lacked the science until recently to determine what standard is feasible for water districts across the country, Woods said. The EPA was persuaded to take up the issue after a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report that showed that even low levels of arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer over a lifetime.

Implementing a local standard of 3 rather than 5 parts per billion would cost about $190 million, said Pankaj Parekh, director of water quality compliance for the DWP.

Though willing, Parekh said, “we’d have to build a new treatment plant altogether” to comply with what the council recommends. Tap water provided by the DWP now has an average of 4.2 parts of arsenic per billion, he said.

Nationally, the council estimates that reducing arsenic levels to 3 parts per billion would trigger monthly water bill hikes of between $5 and $14.

Considering the health risk, Feuer said, “$5 per month is a reasonable price to pay for clean and safe water.”