20 December 2010

Drinking Water

Millrace, Mt. Vernon Distillery and Grist Mill Park, Fairfax, VA
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For residents of the Washington, DC area, there have been a number of drinking water issues in this current, exceptionally cold, early (meteorological) winter. Water main breaks have been all too common, especially in the District of Columbia and in portions of Maryland served by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. A combination of long periods of freezing weather and old pipes makes long established urban areas vulnerable to breaks. While the District of Columbia claims to be replacing old pipe at an accelerated rate, there are still many kilometers of old cast-iron pipe, so weather induced breaks are to be expected until warmer weather returns.

A second issue raised in Sunday's right-wing Washington Post is the presence of hexavalent chromium in the water supplies of a number of urban areas including Washington. While I have not seen the movie (I do not care for Julia Roberts in any role), apparently that chemical was the cause of the supposedly courageous activities of Erin Brokovich. Hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen, but at the moment its presence in drinking water is noted but not regulated. Current evidence indicates the chemical is in the water supplies of many urban area in the United States.
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04 December 2010

Minerals, Mining, and Water III: Gold Mining and the Columbia River

Tiffany Mountain (1980 m)
Okanogan County, Washington
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It has been awhile since last I commented on mining, but today I came across several articles in various newspapers and other sources discussing mineral extraction in relation to water resources. A gold mine in Okanogan County, Washington has been a topic of concern for people in the Pacific Northwest for several years. The Canadian mining company operating the mine was recently fined by the State of Washington for filing false reports on water testing. Now that company wants to explore nearby areas for further mining activities, potentially profitable given the recent spikes in the price of gold. Draining into the Columbia River, the streams leading from the highland mining areas could bring arsenic, mercury and other toxic materials into the river. Water from the Columbia is used downstream for drinking water, for irrigation, and for recreation. While quite a distance away, the lower reaches of the river are also important salmon breeding areas.There is a fear of a toxic spill polluting that river in much the same way as smelter tailings and emissions at Trail, BC, just upstream on the Columbia, have contaminated nearby areas and Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam. There is an ongoing large-scale study of the contamination of the river by that smelter just across the international boundary. The Province of British Columbia is also conducting ongoing studies of contamination of air, water, and soil by the emissions from the smelter.


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03 December 2010

Lead in Washington, DC's Drinking Water

Capitol from Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Court, Washington, DC
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In common with the situation in most other major cities in the eastern United States, lead in the local water supply has been a concern in Washington, DC for the past half century. Lead pipes and lead welds on water supply pipes made of other materials created a potential hazard for those consuming the water, especially for growing children. Over the past two decades there was a massive effort to reduce lead in the water supply. Now it is reported that effort was inadequate to reduce lead levels in about 15,000 residences. The deleterious effects of lead on the bodies and brains of those who are exposed to it in drinking water are numerous and profound, and there is a great concern about what this discovery may mean for those children living in the residences where lead levels remain high. An article in press expresses both the problems and the levels of hazard in Washington, DC (Brown, M.J., et al., Association between children’s blood lead levels, lead service lines, and water disinfection, Washington, DC, 1998–2006. Environ. Res. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.envres.2010.10.003).

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