Neighbor and frequent commenter Eve Fisher is duly torqued: she and her fellow Madison residents are paying higher rates for sub-par water:
City officials were recently notified that the average level of trihalomethanes in the city water was calculated at 82 micrograms per liter, slightly above the Environmental Protection Agency's allowed level of 80 micrograms per liter.
...According to Kim Verhey, foreman of the city's water distribution system, "Although there is a higher level of this chemical in our water, it does not necessarily mean that the water is unsafe to consume."
Verhey said that the trihalomethane (TTHM) level that Madison water exceeded is measured in parts per billion. He added that the excessive TTHM levels are considered unhealthy for a person if a 150-pound individual were to drink about 2 quarts of the affected water each day during a typical lifetime.
...Some persons who have consumed excessive amounts of TTHMs for many years have experienced problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system. They also have an increased risk of contracting cancer [Chuck Clement, "Madison Water Users Will Get Water-Quality Notices," Madison Daily Leader, 2011.04.14].
The most common trihalomethane is chloroform. Yum. Maybe all the beer-drinking in Madison isn't such a bad thing after all.
The World Health Organization provides a PDF fact sheet on chloroform and other THMs. Among the details:
Sources of chloroform in the aquatic environment include paper bleaching with chlorine, chlorination of recreational (pool) water, cooling water and wastewater. Chloroform is present in drinking-water through direct contamination of the source and through formation from naturally occurring organic compounds during chlorination. The rate and degree of formation of chloroform during chlorination are a function primarily of the concentrations of chlorine and humic acid, temperature and pH. Levels vary seasonally, with concentrations generally being greater in summer than in winter (IPCS, 1994a) ["Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water," World Health Organization, 2004].
So I wonder how close the high-THM sample site is to either of our city pools. Of course, if you're concerned about the levels of THM in the water your kids drink (they probably weigh less than 150 pounds, the baseline indicated above), consider that (according to the WHO report) when you toss them in the chlorinated pool for an hour, they are getting 93 times as much chloroform as they do from typical daily tap water ingestion and 141 times the exposure they get from a ten-minute shower.
And when are they going to clean this up? Or update us, the public? Especially outrageous considering the rate hike for water!
The PUR filters that fit sink faucets seem to get the chlorine taste out of water. Sure makes coffee made with the filtered water taste better than that loaded with Chlorine. Rural water in Tripp County is some of best in SD, but the Winner City water is drinkable, but much better with a filter.
Beer may be loaded with nitrosamines. Also not good for you. May be contributors to Alzheimer's disease.
I'll just go back to the well here at the lake. As for folks in town, what then, red wine?
thewaterguy@sio.midco.net As long as the city officials feed chlorine to the drinking water supply, there will be chloroform in the water to some degree. Carbon filters take it out. Reverse osmosis purifiers or distillers remove it also. The only other option is buying bottled water. I wouldn't feed my kids or grandkids chlorinated drinking water. Drop me a line at the email above and we can discuss answers to this concern.