New warning for Warden water
City Well Five in Warden has shown increasingly high levels of carcinogen EDB. City authorities have chose not to alarm the citizenry, while noting that increased usage of the well during warm months may further the problem.
Levels higher than last report; city says no serious danger yet.
The dangers of a known carcinogen have struck again in Warden water wells.
A report issued by the state's Department of Health declares that the samples taken from City Well Five during the first three months of the year show levels of ethylene di-bromide of 330 parts per trillion in January, 380 parts per trillion in February, and 400 parts per trillion in March.
These levels are higher than those shown by the samples taken from June to December of 2003, which peaked at 92 parts per trillion.
The state and federal maximum contaminant level for EDB in drinking water is 50 parts per trillion.
The carcinogen, known as EDB is a chemical fumigant banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1984.
The compound, while not lethal in a short period of time, can bring serious consequences to a person's kidneys, liver, stomach or reproductive system if water containing EDB is consumed over a number of years.
Warden city manager Mike Thompson said there is no major source of concern, given that the letter from the Department of Health announcing the higher levels of EDB noted that the levels are still acceptable.
Furthermore, Thompson said that samples had been taken from reservoirs at the east and west side of town, and that EDB levels were low enough to not be detected.
The reason for this, Thompson said, is because the good water from those reservoirs and Well Six mixes in with the water from Well Five and dilutes the EDB contents to non-detectable, safer levels.
The situation , Thompson explained, is not a definitive one, especially with warmer months ahead, which will likely increase usage, putting a strain on Well Six, and forcing use of Well Five, which works only when Well Six cannot keep up with the demand.
"If demand goes up this summer, people using water and the potato plant using more water, we are going to have to turn to the water that is bad more often, so the chance of getting those higher readings is going to happen more often."
Thompson said the higher readings make building a new well for the city a more urgent issue. "We are trying to keep (use of Well 5) to a minimum," he said, "but what we need to do is get a new well and quit using the bad one altogether," he said. The price tag for a new well goes up to slightly more than $1 million.
Facing such an expense, the city has applied to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program, as well as has approached the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell about the availability of more federal money. "We have not heard anything back from them yet," Thompson said.
Thompson added that the Yakima engineering firm of Gray and Osborne, which the city has worked with for a number of other projects, is looking for additional funding, as well. "They are working on a grant application from the Public Works Trust Fund," he said.
The letter from the state's department of health was written in two languages, thus helping inform and educate the town's 72 percent Hispanic population on the issue.
"The state department (of health) did that," Thompson said of the letter in Spanish. "There was so much controversy the first time that they got the point." The time Thompson refers to is when the first announcements of EDB in water were made, the letter was written and posted only in English, with a small note in Spanish on top of the first page, asking Spanish-only speakers to find someone bilingual to read it and translate it for them.
Thompson said the DOH did translate the letter the last time. However, he said, the letter in Spanish was not ready until after a town meeting had been called by city authorities to discuss EDB contamination.
Though he discounted the possibility of another town meeting, Thompson said the letter had been mailed to every water user in town, going door to door at apartment complexes. "The owners (of the complexes) don't really live here, it's the tenant that is here using the water," he said. "So we felt like they are the ones who need to use the information."