OUR WATER: WHATS REALLY IN IT?
Whether you are a long-time resident or a newcomer to
Even if you recognize this as a gross exaggeration
you may be shocked to know what is really in Cacapon’s water.
A new USGS report found pesticides, flame retardants, pharmaceuticals
and personal-care products, among other harmful substances, in the
What is happening?
So you might be asking:
How could this be? Why don’t we know about these pollutants? How dangerous are they? The truth of the matter is that most people
simply assume that their waterways and drinking water are fine, particularly if the water doesn’t look funny or smell bad. However,
if water is not monitored for unseen substances and those that don’t rankle the nose, no one – not scientists, not citizens — knows
what really is in their water.
Additionally if the guardian authorities such as the US Environmental Protection Agency,
the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection and the County Health Departments don’t have established standards, or the
standards that do exist are not enforced or are simply voluntary, everyone is at risk. As a consequence what people swim in, bath
with, wash with and drink is liable to be injurious to their health and they don’t know it and don’t have any control over it.
USGS
Report
USGS has published “A Recon-naissance for Emerging Contaminants in the South Branch Potomac River,
What
this title doesn’t say is that this report is really about water quality, fish kills and a fish anomaly known as Intersex in
which male smallmouth bass are showing signs of feminization, technically known as oocytes in the testes.
The important
words in the title are Emerging Contaminants. One should not think, however, that the adjective “emerging” somehow diminishes the
danger of these contaminants. The substances analyzed in this report are very bad, healthwise, and are only called emerging because
until recently there was not an easy way to measure or evaluate them.
Nevertheless, emerging contaminants (ECs) have been
of concern to government agencies – USGS, EPA and others – and have been under evaluation for over 20 years. ECs are a group of man-made
organic compounds, plus some natural substances, such as arsenic, that appear to cause adverse effects in humans and the environment.
Included are industrial byproducts, pharmaceuticals, agri-cultural chemicals and personal care products many of which are considered
endocrine disrupters that—just as the name implies—mess up the human body chemistry and could be causing fish intersex.
“Pesticides,
flame-retardants, and personal-care products, including some known or suspected endocrine-disrupting compounds, were present in passive
samplers from all sites,” says Doug Chambers, USGS biologist and lead investigator, “In the Cacapon watershed we found hexa-chlorobenzene,
pentachloroanisole, chlorpyrifos, chlordane and tetra-bromodiphenyl ether in passive samplers. Of these chlorpyrifos (also known as
Dursban) was the most prevalent.” Chlorpyrifos is a pesticide used widely in homes and on farms and can enter the environment through
multiple routes including runoff. Chlor-pyrifos is listed as a possible human carcinogen by EPA.
The
In
a companion water study, “An Assessment of the Occurrence of Chemicals Causing Endocrine Disruption in Fish in the South Branch of
the Potomac River” dated March 8, 2004 by Dr. Martha J.M. Wells of the
Triclosan is an antimicrobial compound present in a wide range of commercially available personal care
products including deodorants and soaps.
According to the Wells report, Triclosan was found in the Potomac watershed“about 30 times greater than the maximum found” in a national reconnaissance study and found at “the detection limit in the