Concern about possible water contamination spreads to other states
March 2, 1998
Michael Mansur, environment writer
© 1998 The Kansas City Star
Concern about the potential for some older plastic pipes to contaminate drinking water is spreading across the nation's midsection.
From Nebraska to Texas, state officials are assessing how many public water systems contain pipes manufactured before 1976; the contamination problem has been traced to a manufacturing process used before then. And by this summer many states, including Missouri and Kansas, will sample water systems containing the pre-1976 pipes for vinyl chloride, a chemical known to cause cancer in humans.
"This is certainly a concern," said Tom Kelley, a spokesman for the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission in Austin. "That's why we're mobilizing to take care of it by this summer."
As a result of a Kansas City Star investigation, two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional offices have asked states to assess water supply systems that contain the pre-1976 polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipe.
Meanwhile, EPA officials in Kansas City, Kan., also took new steps Monday to ensure that PVC pipes were replaced for customers of Doniphan County Rural Water District No. 5 in northeast Kansas.
The district is the nation's first confirmed case of PVC pipe tainting drinking water at levels above the federal limit. In the pre-1976 pipe, vinyl chloride can separate from the pipe and leach into the water under certain conditions.
On Monday the EPA proposed deadlines for the pipe replacement in Doniphan County and suggested that those deadlines be part of a legally binding federal consent order to ensure compliance.
The EPA's Dallas region has asked Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana to assess all water districts, not just rural districts, for the older pipes.
"They should check them all, because there could be a city with one little section of this type of old PVC pipe," said Tye Biasco, an environmental engineer in the EPA's regional office in Dallas. "We're taking this seriously."
State regulators will have authority to decide which water systems should be sampled, Biasco said.
Texas officials said they certainly would test systems with the older pipe. The PVC pipe industry has estimated that nearly 1,000 rural water districts in Texas contain PVC pipe, although it is uncertain how many of those systems contain pipe made before 1976.
In the EPA's regional office in Kansas City, Kan., the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas have committed to the testing of dozens of rural water districts. Nebraska officials will meet this week with a representative of the Vinyl Institute, an association of vinyl chloride producers, about testing 12 rural water districts in the state this spring and summer. Similar testing also is planned in Iowa.
In a letter released Monday, EPA officials in Kansas City, Kan., outlined a schedule for testing and replacing the problem pipe in Doniphan County. The letter also suggested that the schedule be included in a federal administrative or consent order.
The EPA letter was sent to the Vinyl Institute, Doniphan County Rural Water District No. 5 and CertainTeed Corp., which manufactured the pipe installed in the county in 1969 and 1970.
Because of a technicality, the EPA has not officially declared the high levels of vinyl chloride in District No. 5's water to be a violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
The law states that violations are to be determined only by samples at the point where treated drinking water enters the distribution system -- not from samples taken from home faucets or other taps in the system.
By making the EPA's proposed schedule part of a federal consent order, the federal agency believes it will ensure that it has legal recourse if voluntary efforts fall apart, said Bob Morby, the EPA official in Kansas City, Kan., overseeing the case.
For now the EPA will not pursue any unilateral action while the industry voluntarily responds to the problem, Morby said.
"This is preferable to arguing in front of the courts or wherever we might argue," he said. "We're anxious to see if we can continue to work together to get done what needs to get done."
Industry representatives praised the EPA's schedule on Monday but said they would be concerned if the agency insisted on placing those deadlines into a consent order.
"We've taken the position that as long as there is commitment and collaboration, we don't need an order," said Tim Patterson of the Vinyl Institute.
Under the schedule the EPA proposed Monday, some Doniphan County pipes known to be a problem might be replaced immediately while the rest of the system was studied. The agency knows that customers on the farthest reaches of the pipe system, the dead-end sections, have the highest levels of vinyl chloride.
An alternative, the EPA said, might be to assess the entire system further before taking any action. But that would stretch completion of pipe replacement until late 1999.
In that case, the EPA said it wanted to be assured that the Vinyl Institute would continue to supply Doniphan County residents with bottled water.
Bottled water is being delivered weekly to 21 homes to reduce the residents' exposure to vinyl chloride. The Vinyl Institute is paying for the water and its delivery.