Communities prepare to battle radium standard

Communities prepare to battle radium standard; Federal drinking water rule could force many in state to spend millions

By Colleen Krantz Copyright 1999 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel January 5, 1999

Officials here and in more than 20 other Wisconsin communities are bracing themselves for bad news and in some cases a knock-down, drag-out brawl over federal standards for the amount of radium allowable in drinking wat er.

Federal officials plan to announce recommended standards in April, setting up a showdown with the communities that would have to spend tens of millions of dollars to comply with radium levels they view as unduly stringent. Many municipal officials believe tougher standards or stricter enforcement of current standards are unnecessary because, they say, the health risk posed by radium in water is negligible.

Waukesha, in particular, is prepared to wage war with the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the standards, which could cost the city $70 million in water system improvements.

Other communities also could take big financial hits. Fond du Lac, for example, estimates water system improvements there could cost $9 million.

Waukesha hopes that its recently commissioned study on the health risks associated with radium will be completed before the EPA completes its rule-making process. Federal health officials have said long-term exposure to high levels of radium, a natural element in deep underground aquifers, has been linked to bone and other cancers.

"Our hope would be that it's done just in time" to be considered by the EPA, said Daniel Warren, president of the Water Utili ty Commission.

The $200,000 study, which will be conducted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, will examine whether there is a relationship between radium in city water and the occurrence of bone cancer in customers. It will be conducted ov er the next 18 months and paid for with funds from the water utility's budget.

Bob Baumeister, chief of the Department of Natural Resources' Public Water Systems section, said 25 water systems in the state are in violation of the current rad ium standards.

The standard has been on the books for years but has never been fully enforced.

Most of the affected systems are within a band that curves from De Pere to Fond du Lac to Racine County. The systems generally draw fro m deep wells that tap into layers of sandstone for their water. Because all rocks contain radium, the element is absorbed by the water as it seeps through the rock layers.

The City of Waukesha has been the most vocal in expressing concerns about the radium limits, in large part because it would have to pay the most to comply with federal standards.

Within two years, the EPA intends to more strictly enforce its current standard or set a more stringent standard on the amount of radium allowable in drinking water, said Miguel Del Toral, manager of safe drinking water regulation for the EPA's regional office in Chicago.

The current EPA limit is 5 picocuries of radium per liter of water. The EPA will likely suggest in April that the total remain at 5 picocuries but that separate limits be set for each of two isotopes of radium, Del Toral said. A maximum level of 3 picocuries for one isotope and 2 for the other would keep the total allowable at 5 picocuries, he said.

A picocurie is a measure of radioactivity, or the pace at which a radioactive element such as radium disintegrates.

If the standard is eventually reinforced, the state would try to gain compliance from Waukesha, where water avera ges about 9.7 picocuries of radium per liter, Del Toral said. About 175 other municipal water systems in the Midwest would be affected if the standard were enforced, Del Toral said.

"Once we come out with our notice in April, the states will be informing the water systems that they should start looking at treatment options," Del Toral said.

The DNR's Baumeister said that Waukesha's concerns are understandable, considering the amount the city would have to spend to upgrade its water system.

"I think the others are concerned but are merely waiting out the process," he said.

Dale Paczkowski, manager of the water utility in Fond du Lac, said he is optimistic that the Waukesha study will be completed in t ime for the EPA to consider it. A favorable finding by that study could bolster the arguments of other communities against the standards, he said.

A number of communities in Brown County exceeding the current standard plan to abandon their w ells and begin drawing water from Lake Michigan, partly because of radium contamination.

In Jefferson County, Johnson Creek, which has slightly more radium than allowed under the current standard, may have to spend nearly $1 million to resol ve the problem, said Todd Hampton, director of public works.

The Waukesha County communities of New Berlin, Brookfield, Sussex, the villages of Mukwonago and Eagle and water trusts for portions of Muskego also would be affected by any EPA eff ort to enforce the radium standard.

Although the EPA expects to announce its recommendation in April, a standard likely won't be applied until at least late in 2000. In the interim, the agency will invite comments on the proposed standard and consider the information provided to them.

To comply, Waukesha would have to spend about $70 million to build and operate a water softening and filtration facility that would remove radium ions from water supplied by the city's deep wells, said Warren, of the city's Water Utility Commission. City officials have estimated that water bills would at least triple if such a facility were built.

Waukesha Water Utility officials said in the spring that they would not voluntarily comp ly with the standard. They argued that previous studies have shown that the risk of getting bone cancer from drinking Waukesha water is negligible.

"That's why we feel so strongly about this," Warren said. "Because we don't believe that even if we are forced to spend upwards of $70 million that we are going to accomplish anything.

"If the information said that there was a meaningful health risk to our customers, we would have done something a long time ago. We would have acted to protect our customers."

During the early 1990s, the EPA considered relaxing the radium standards, and communities thought the issue would go away. The EPA was prohibited from relaxing the standards, however, under the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments adopted by Congress in 1996.

Waukesha has spent years in legal battles over radium, at a cost of about $1 million in legal fees, Warren said.

In 1991, the state departments of Justice and Natural Resources filed a lawsuit against Waukesha in an attempt to force the city to reduce radium in its drinking water. In 1995, when it appeared the EPA would raise its limits on radium, the city agreed to pay a $20,000 fine, ending that legal battle.

GRAPHIC: Chart
Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Exceeding radium standards
Twenty-five Wisconsin water utilities may have to spend millions
to comply with a final federal standard on radium. The U.S. Environm
ental
Protection Agency says it will begin enforcing a limit on radium in
drinking water of no more than 5 picocuries per liter. A picocurie is a
measure of radioactivity.
TEST RESULTS
PICOCURIES
WATERWORKS PER LITER
Allouez 8. 1
Ashwaubenon 5.8
Bellevue Sanitary Dist. 1 (Green Bay) 21.3
De Pere
8.3
Ledgeview Sanitary Dist. 2 (De Pere) 6
Hustisford 6.7
Lomira 6.3
Fond du Lac 8.1
Mary Hill Park (Fond du Lac)
10.4
Princeton 8.5
Johnson Creek 6
Coleman 5.9
Peshtigo 7.6
Southern Wisconsin Center (Un
ion Grove) 7
Brookfield 6.5
Eagle 8.6
Mukwonago 11.2
New Berlin 6.2
Sussex
7.2
Edgewater Bluff Villas (Green Bay) 6.2
Security Acres addition (Franklin) 6.2
Country Estates Community Association
(Lyons) 7
Lake Lore water trust (Muskego)
8. 5
Lake Meadows water trust (Muskego) 6.3

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