By Chris Bowman
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Jan. 18, 2001)
Water rates for thousands of Elk Grove residents are expected to triple, and hundreds of other mostly rural California towns likewise will get clobbered by a federal mandate issued Wednesday to drastically reduce arsenic in drinking water.
In the most sweeping federal action yet to ensure safe drinking water, the outgoing Clinton administration ordered an 80 percent reduction in the allowed amount of arsenic in drinking water.
Arsenic, a common naturally occurring element, can cause cancer and other health problems.
The new standard mostly affects water systems in Western states and parts of the Midwest and New England that depend on underground sources of water.
The order by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eclipses in scope and cost the effects of other drinking water limits, such as those for industrial solvents and pesticides, because arsenic is so prevalent in ground water and because the reduction in allowable levels of arsenic levels is so steep -- from 50 parts per billion of arsenic to 10 ppb.
"This will affect more sources and probably more water systems than any other drinking water standard to date," said David Spath, chief enforcer of drinking water standards for the state Department of Health Services.
The EPA's crackdown on arsenic is designed to protect the public from the long-term health effects of drinking water with relatively low levels of arsenic. The effects include cancer of the skin, bladder, lung and prostate, according to the EPA.
The EPA is investigating a possible link between leukemia and arsenic in the western Nevada town of Fallon.
As of this month, at least nine cases of childhood leukemia have surfaced in Fallon, where the drinking water was found to contain twice as much arsenic as allowed by law.
As far-reaching as the rule is, drinking water for most Californians is relatively free of arsenic -- less than the newly ordered level -- according to state water quality monitoring records.
"It's just that the impacts on those agencies that won't be in compliance will be acute," said Matt Maucieri, a spokesman for the Association of California Water Agencies.
Statewide, at least 450 water providers have wells that will require treatment to comply with the new arsenic level, Spath said, adding that an uncounted number of small county-regulated systems also are affected.
Among the hardest hit suppliers is Elk Grove Water Works, which serves 23,000 residents east of the Cosumnes River.
Meeting the new arsenic limit will require filtration for the first time on a dozen of its 13 wells, said Mike Kenny, general manager.
"We are talking at least $13 million in treatment required," said Kenny. "That could translate into tripling water rates.
"It may be higher, I'm sorry to tell you," he said.
Homeowners currently pay an average of $14 a month for water.
Citizens Water Resources expects to spend at least $9 million to upgrade six residential wells spread across Sacramento County.
The San Joaquin Valley farming town of Hanford has some of the highest levels of arsenic in the nation, with levels sometimes exceeding 50 ppb.
As with many rural water systems, the one serving Hanford's 40,000 residents draws its tap water straight from the ground, with no chlorination or other treatment.
As a result, the new arsenic standard will have Hanford and dozens of towns -- from the grape-growing community of Delano to the Sierra hamlet of Truckee -- installing purification systems at wellheads for the first time.
And the millions of dollars needed will be borne by a small base of ratepayers.
"This rule is going to double our water rates," said Terry Carr, utilities supervisor for Hanford.
Glenshire Mutual Water Co., serving a subdivision east of Truckee, has lost five of its dozen wells in the past year to high arsenic contamination, which comes from volcanic bedrock underlying the mountain community, said Mark Thomas, the company's general manager.
He said he expects customer rates will at least double in the next five years to pay for an estimated $3 million worth of arsenic-filtration systems.
Small water systems serving 10,000 or fewer residents have up to five years to comply with the arsenic rule, while larger utilities must clean up in three years.
Even Calistoga, the Napa County town whose name is synonymous with pure water, must cut arsenic in its municipal well supply.
Statewide, the arsenic standard will cost Californians $500 million to $600 million in the first year that the rule takes effect, with recurring annual costs of $762 million, according to Maucieri of the water agency association.
The association supported a tightening of the arsenic standard, but questioned whether the expected reduction in cancer cases could be achieved at less cost through other means, such as prevention of skin cancer.