State regulators are allowing a dramatically increased cancer risk in coal ash contaminated well water. This week in CIB.

Executive Watch: State takes gamble with citizens’ health

There is mounting frustration at the recent decision by NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) officials to advise hundreds of well owners near Duke Energy coal ash pits that their water is safe to drink after all. These same well owners had originally received letters last spring from state health officials warning that their well water was contaminated by carcinogenic hexavalent chromium at levels rendering it unsafe for human consumption.

According to emails obtained by an investigating reporter with the Winston-Salem Journal, and “interviews with environmental experts and sources close to state health staff”, the more recent letters lifting the do-not-drink warnings resulted from DEQ and DHHS administrators overriding the advice of their own staff experts.

What has changed since last spring about the 330 contaminated drinking water wells? Residents say it’s not the content of the water. Instead, state agency heads at the political-appointee level in DEQ and DHHS have changed their departments’ interpretation of “safe” contamination levels.

Originally, state experts on toxics and health recommended that the alert level for contamination by hexavalent chromium in the water be set at .07 parts per billion. That was based on an increase in cancer risk of one case in a million people exposed to that level of contamination over a lifetime. It was the basis of the warning level used for the original do-not-drink letters that went out to over 200 of the well owners last year. Many of the wells tested had contamination at much higher levels than that.

Now, however, DEQ officials are telling the public that federal drinking water standards allow chromium contamination in bottled water at up to 100 parts per billion. However, that standard refers to total chromium, not hexavalent chromium, a very different matter. State health experts reveal that consistently drinking water with 100 parts per billion of hexavalent chromium would on average result in an additional cancer case in one out of every 700 people so exposed over their lifetime.

In addition to referring to total chromium rather than carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, the protective adequacy of the federal standard is currently under agency review. It exceeds the standard applicable in some states.

One nationally-known expert in toxic water issues, who is currently working with the city of Flint, Michigan, and who has consulted with at least 30 states during a 40-year professional career, expressed concern with the state’s actions and called the affected water “not safe to drink.”

CIB will continue to monitor this story and see if the McCrory Administration will actually take action to protect the people, not the polluters. We don’t have high hopes.

Climate Change Update: Overheated February

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called it “staggering.” Last month was not only the hottest February on record since global records began in 1880; it beat the old record by nearly 6/10s of a degree, the largest single-month record jump in recorded history. February continued the streak of record-high monthly average global temperature to ten straight months.

Scientists are now attributing these current patterns to climate change resulting from increased levels of greenhouse gases. Their elevated confidence in that attribution comes from comparison of current trends with previous years associated with transitory weather events (such as “El Niño”), as well as patterns identifying where the highest current impacts are found. High northern latitudes (the Arctic and nearby), which are relatively unaffected by El Niño, are the regions experiencing the greatest upward change in average temperatures.

Administrative Watch: Last Chance to Speak Out on Coal Ash Cleanup

Concerned citizens will have one last chance to speak out this week at a public hearing on the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) coal ash cleanup plans,

This week’s hearing is tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 29, in Hickory (Catawba County), beginning at 6pm at Catawba Valley Community College Auditorium, 2550 US Hwy 70, Hickory 28602.

Concerned members of the public are encouraged to attend. Those who wish to speak should show up early in order to sign up.

Comments can emphasize that all of Duke’s unlined, leaking coal ash sites across North Carolina are high-risk and should be cleaned up by moving the toxic coal ash to dry, lined storage away from rivers and groundwater. The communities and people of our state deserve to have clean water, protected from the threat of toxic coal ash pollution.

None of the sites are in fact “low-risk” and cannot safely be capped and left in place to continuing seeping into our water supplies. More than 200 seeps from Duke’s coal ash pits collectively send about three million gallons a day into our waters. It is past time for DEQ to order swift cleanup of these continuing pollution sources.

The ongoing mess with is-it-safe-or-not-safe notices to owners of contaminated wells near coal ash storage pits underscores the urgent need for comprehensive action to deal with this continuing threat to public health.

That’s our report for this week.