TrendGrowing worries about unregulated chemicals in water

Growing awareness of pharmaceuticals in Iowa waterways has eclipsed a broader problem of chemicals from consumer products that are untracked and unchecked, a new report says. The Iowa Policy Project report released last week says federal and state regulations do not require regulators to monitor many chemicals that show up in our water supplies, including fragrances in soaps and active ingredients in insect repellents. “These go well beyond the well publicized issue of water contamination by pharmaceuticals,” said report author William Wombacher.

Dave DeWitte writes that the group of contaminants are broadly referred to as “organic wastewater contaminants.” A common attribute is that current law does not require public or private water companies to remove them, Wombacher said. “Neither are there processes that target these chemical compounds for removal or do a very good job of removing them,” he added.

Wombacher said the concern about pharmaceuticals showing up in drinking water in trace quantities has prompted a growing public awareness of the need to dispose of unneeded pharmaceuticals properly. Changing disposal methods will not solve the problem of other organic waste contaminants, because most of them get into the wastewater stream through intended uses, such as bathing and laundering, and because wastewater treatment systems generally are not able to remove them.

DeWitte writes that one recent study by University of Iowa scientists found low concentrations of two synthetic fragrance compounds known as AHTN and HHCB in both the Iowa River and in the University of Iowa’s drinking water, said Wombacher, who has a master’s degree in civil-environmental engineering from UI. The report cited several problems with the lack of federal regulation of organic wastewater contaminants.

While the manufacturers to test the safety of these chemicals for their intended product use, they are not required to test their effects inside the human body, including whether they can become concentrated in human tissue through drinking water.

Iowa Policy Project researcher Teresa Galluzzo said this would be an ideal time for regulatory action in the United States to require better testing and tracking of organic wastewater contaminants because the European Union recently imposed tougher testing standards for the manufacturers of such products. As a result, many companies based in the United States will already be required to increase their testing of products bound for European consumers.

California maintains a regularly updated list of hundreds of compounds that are cancer causing or harmful to reproductive health. It bans their discharge into any water that will ultimately be used as drinking water.

Galluzzo said the 23-year history of California’s regulation provides a framework for regulatory action that could be taken nationwide.