March 11, 2008
Local water utilities pump from the ground and are therefore not required by the Department of Natural Resources to test for pharmaceutical concentrations in tap water, according to utility managers.
The DNR recent revised its recommendations to homeowners to discourage flushing drugs down the toilet, which was previous its preferred method of disposal. A report Sunday by the Associated Press found traces of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water of several major metropolises that draw drinking water from surface sources.
“We get our water from underground, so we have never tested for that and we have always been told that we would never get that,” said Jim Kell, superintendent of the West Bend Water Utility.
The Water Utility does test the groundwater for a myriad of other chemicals and sediments, including volatile organic carbons (VOC) which often come from manmade cleaning liquids, Kell said. The utility tests for VOCs at pumping stations shown to draw the chemicals in groundwater, and filters pumped water through carbon filters to remove them.
According to guidelines, the Water Utility tests the water before and after treatment on a quarterly basis. The DNR also conducts an annual inspection, which the Water Utility always passes with impeccable marks, Kell said.
“The DNR comes in once a year and goes through all our facilities and we do everything they tell us to do,” Kell said.
Any local water utility pumps from groundwater wells, so they would not be comparable to the cities in the Associated Press review which focused those which draw from surface water, such as Milwaukee or New York, according to Darnell Wagner, director of the Hartford Water Utility.
“Ours is a closed system,” Wagner said. “So we pump out of the well and treat the water with chlorine and the required treatments and test it as required.”
Pulling water from the ground does not guarantee it could never be contaminated by residual pharmaceuticals, Wagner said, but the DNR does not require the test because of natural tertiary filtration.
“We’re not saying that somehow it can’t get in, but the idea is our wells are recharged by the Earth,” Wagner said.
The latest DNR recommendations prohibiting flushing medications has people wondering what to do with their leftovers, according to Health Department director Linda Walter.
“We do get calls here from people asking how to properly dispose of meds,” Walter said.
The latest DNR directions involve dissolving the medication in its original container with water, pouring the solution over something like kitty litter, sealing it in a plastic bag and throwing it out as garbage, Walter said. But that idea could still logically leave opportunity for the pharmaceuticals to leak out, she said.
“When you talk to our groundwater managers, they say if the landfills get flooded, it could still get into the groundwater,” Walter said.
The current best solution is municipality-sponsored medicine collections, such as the Medicine Collection Day spanning Washington, Racine, Ozaukee and Milwaukee Counties on April 19, Walter said.
Flushing drugs in Washington County may not result drug residue in local water stores, but area sewage plants release treated wastewater into tributaries of larger water systems, superintendents say.
Incoming and outgoing, treated wastewater are not tested for pharmaceutical contamination, according to Sewer Utility superintendent Scott Tutas. Wastewater gets a chemical treatment when it arrives at city’s Sewer Utility and then undergoes two cleansing biological processes.
In the first step, the wastewater sits in a so-called activated sludge, in which living bacteria are suspended in the water. The bacteria float free and can go around “like Pacman,” gobbling up harmful contaminants, according to Tutas.
In the second step, the water is sprayed over grids containing material laden with bacteria in what is known as a trickling filter. The water is then pushed through sand filters before it is emitted into the Milwaukee River.
“And the Milwaukee River ends up in Lake Michigan, and the city of Milwaukee takes their water from Lake Michigan… and the city of Milwaukee feeds water to those other communities,” Kell said.
The Sewer Utility tests its input and output for biological oxygen demand which relates to how much bacteria are still in the water, suspended solids, phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, silver, zinc, mercury and cadmium, according to Tutas.
The treatment plant also submits to a bio-essay each year, in which the DNR tests output water against natural river water. The department raises flathead minnows and water fleas both water samples to see if the output water causes and biological variances, Tutas said.
Total laboratory charges make up about $65,000 of the Sewer Utilities operations costs for 2008, as part of a $2.3 million budget which would earn $3.66 in revenues at current rates, according to a study of the Sewer Utility.
Jerry Wagner of the Hartford Sewer Utility said outgoing treated wastewater is not tested for pharmaceutical contamination. The plant has won awards for having one of the best-engineered water treatment plants in the state, he said, and generally emits cleaner water than the river water itself.
Still, outgoing treated wastewater is emitted into the Rubicon River, which flows into the Rock River, which is ultimately a tributary of the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Residents should take advantage of medicine collection days and not flush their excess medication, Wagner said.
“If they can dispose of the differently, that’d be great,” he said.