Another blow

When state officials began testing well water in the East 67th Street area a few years back, results showing above-average contamination levels were alarming enough to spark a sweeping Environmental Protection Agency cleanup effort that continues today.

A partnership between the city and the EPA, approved in April, will extend city water service to about 30 well users in the area. Water line construction is expected to begin sometime in June.

So a plan of action is in the works to get those residents taken care of, but officials say the lessons learned from this effort should be applied to anyone who has a well and an in-ground septic system, no matter where they live.

Since private water wells are not regulated by the EPA or any state agency, regular tests to determine water quality are essential for finding harmful chemicals that could have ill effects.

David Peck, the Ector County Health Department's water quality program manager, said it's all a matter of well owners being pro-active.

"Private water wells aren't tested unless a homeowner gets their own testing done," he said.

THE CULPRITS

After testing public-supply water wells, or wells that service more than 20 homes, in the East 67th Street area in 2005, experts found above-average levels of tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene and 1,2-dichloroethene in groundwater. The chemicals are used in metal degreasing and dry cleaning operations, and the Department of Health and Human Services and The National Toxicology Program has labeled two of them as probable carcinogens.

This prompted further testing of private wells and eventually the city water service extension.

EPA remedial project manager Vincent Malott has said no one in what's known as the East 67th Street Plume is currently exposed to those chemicals above federal drinking water standards thanks to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality-installed well filters, but another contaminant was found lurking below, a double whammy for residents already dealing with groundwater pollution.

Malott's team found elevated levels of nitrate in well water while testing for the other chemicals. Numbers from tests done last year, the latest EPA data available, show one well at four times above the acceptable nitrate level set by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"Of course, sampling doesn't give you the full extent," Malott said. "The highest levels certainly run above 10 milligrams per liter along Stevenson and Alderfer."

According to the Centers for Disease Control, nitrate is a compound that's formed when nitrogen combines with oxygen or ozone. High levels of it in drinking water can be dangerous, mainly to babies younger than six months, causing a condition known as methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby syndrome."

Nitrate contamination can get into groundwater several ways, namely from farmers who use nitrate fertilizer and septic systems. But since there isn't any agricultural activity surrounding the East 67th Street area, Malott is betting septic systems are to blame.

"There's no obvious fertilizing area out there," he said.

Andrea Morrow, a TCEQ public information officer, said malfunctioning septic systems can leach nitrate water into aquifers, threatening groundwater sucked up by homeowners' wells. Septics built too close to water wells can also cause problems.

Alderfer Avenue resident Pat Owensby said she keeps literature about the dangers of nitrate contamination taped to her fridge for everyone to see. She got the paper, which includes information on blue baby syndrome, from Texas Department of State Health Services workers last month when they were canvassing the area.

"We don't drink our (well) water anyway," Owensby said.

But if she had small children, she'd be worried.

"I've not even thought about it," Owensby said. "But if we had kids, we would."

THE EFFECTS

Todd Anderson, Texas Tech associate professor of environmental toxicology, said when too much nitrate enters the body, it interferes with hemoglobin, a protein in blood that carries oxygen throughout a person's circulatory system. This can result in a bluish-type color in the feet and hands because oxygen isn't being properly delivered to extremities.

Anderson said infants are extra susceptible because they don't necessarily have enough of a certain enzyme that converts methemoglobin, an altered type of hemoglobin that's useless for carrying oxygen, back into the regular, oxygen-rich protein.

CDC literature states that blueness doesn't necessarily mean infants are having trouble breathing, but if the problem is left unchecked it could worsen, causing respiratory failure that could be fatal. Pregnant women are also at risk, and women who breastfeed their babies could unknowingly pass nitrate to their infants.

Morrow said cases of blue baby syndrome have historically been linked to nitrate contamination in water wells that sits above 25 milligrams per liter, or a little over twice the federal safe-drinking level for public water systems.

The EPA's 2007 test results show two wells off East 67th Street that are within that 25-milligram-per-liter range. Fourteen wells between Stevenson and Alderfer avenues are just below it.

Morrow said there have been no reported cases of blue baby syndrome in Texas, but the condition isn't tracked by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services or the CDC.

She said in rare cases adults can be affected, but only those who have a genetic deficiency related to the enzyme that converts methemoglobin back to hemoglobin.

IN THE MEANTIME

Peck, Malott and Morrow said water quality tests are the only way private well owners will know if nitrate or other contaminates plague their system. EPA officials tested private wells within the East 67th Street Plume, but only after they found high levels of tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene and 1,2-dichloroethene in a public supply well for DeVilla Mobile Home Park.

"The reason we were sampling was for chlorinated solvents," Malott said.

He said there will not be any future efforts to collect nitrate levels from private wells.

"It's up to them [well owners] to maintain the integrity of their well and to maintain water quality," Malott said. "It's something they have to plan."

A four-person team from the Texas Department of State Health Services was in the East 67th Street area in April to pass out literature warning about the dangers of nitrate contamination in groundwater, including information on blue baby syndrome. Health services officials recommend drinking bottled water and mixing infant formula with it.

The CDC stresses to not heat or boil water to remove nitrate. This causes water to evaporate, which will actually increase the contaminant's concentration.

Peck said he's been referring concerned callers to private labs that test well water. Michelle Brown, Martin Water Labs office manager, said her customers pay $134 for a standard water quality analysis that tests for 12 different things, including nitrate levels. She said anyone interested in getting their water tested will need to stop by the office first to get a sterilized bottle and instructions on how to properly collect the sample.

"It's a basic test we've put together that is discounted compared to what they would be separate," Brown said.

She said results normally come back within a couple of days.

>> The full story on how well water testing began in the East 67th Street area: www.oaoa.com/news/one_16391___article.html/water_street.html

AT A GLANCE

>> What: Nitrate contamination of well water.

>> Where: East 67th Street area.

>> When: Last tests were done by EPA in 2007.

WHAT THEY FOUND

The maximum level of nitrate allowed in public water systems, set by the Safe Drinking Water Act, is 10 milligrams per liter. Private water wells aren't regulated by the EPA or any state agency, but experts look to that threshold to determine a well owner's water quality.

>> 26: number of wells with nitrate levels between 10.3 and 18.6 milligrams per liter.

>> 15: number of wells with nitrate levels between 20.0 and 29.1 milligrams per liter.

>> 1: well with a nitrate level at 30.2 milligrams per liter.

>> 1: well with a nitrate level at 40.1 milligrams per liter.