CHICAGO, Illinois, November 11, 2008 (ENS) – To keep expired and unused prescription drugs out of the Chicago water supply, city, state and federal governments are cooperating to provide a new permanent, convenient way for people to discard them without flushing them down the drain.

Drop boxes are now located at five Chicago Police Department Area Centers. From there, the pharmaceuticals will be packaged and sent to a state-authorized incinerator for destruction. The collection of the pharmaceuticals is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the disposal is funded by Illinois EPA.

“Many people may not be aware that improperly disposing of prescription or over-the-counter drugs, such as flushing them down the toilet, contributes to pharmaceuticals found in our waterways,” said Mayor Richard Daley, announcing the new drop boxes on November 1.

Unwanted medications can contaminate drinking
water. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

“Residents who have expired and unused pharmaceuticals are encouraged to use these drop boxes at police headquarters, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.

The mayor says Chicago’s drinking water is safe and meets or exceeds all standards of safety as established by the U.S. EPA and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

A water sampling project conducted in March by the Bureau of Water, Illinois EPA identified 16 pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the untreated or drinking water of five public water supplies in Illinois, including Chicago.

The chemicals range from caffeine, nicotine, aspirin and the insect repellent DEET to prescription drugs such as the antibiotic penicillin, the anti-convulsant Dilantin and the thyroid hormone replacement Levothyroxine.

But a comparison of the sampling results with conservative screening levels developed by the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Department of Public Health showed the levels found in water supplies “do not present a public health hazard at this time,” the report states.

Still, the majority of trace pharmaceuticals found in the city’s waterways are the result of human and livestock excretion.

Improperly disposing of prescription or over-the-counter drugs can contribute to pharmaceuticals found in the city’s water. Proper management and disposal has been found to lessen the impact of prescription drugs on the water system.

This year the city has been able to keep just over one ton of prescription drugs out of the waste stream as a result of four neighborhood drop-off events in addition to the permanent drop-off site at the Household Chemicals and Computer Recycling Facility located at Goose Island.

“While research is continuing the impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on people and aquatic life, we know that we need to take action now to prevent them from getting into our waterways and lakes, and into our drinking water,” said Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott.

Expired and unused pharmaceuticals can be disposed of in drop boxes at the five Chicago Police Department Area Centers. By using the police facilities as a drop-off location, the controlled substances will be deposited safely and kept under observation by law enforcement until they are destroyed, the mayor said. The centers are located at:

* Area 1 – 5101 S. Wentworth Ave.
* Area 2 – 727 E. 111th St.
* Area 3 – 2452 W. Belmont Ave.
* Area 4 – 3151 W. Harrison St.
* Area 5 – 5555 W. Grand Ave.

After the pharmaceuticals are put in the drop box, they will be removed and taken to the Goose Island facility for packaging, then transported by the Illinois EPA to a disposal facility for incineration.

The disposal facility is permitted to handle these materials and contains state-of-the-art technology for controlling the air emissions generated from the incineration.

“Properly disposing of unwanted medicines helps protect our Great Lakes by keeping these contaminants out of waterways such as Lake Michigan,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lynn Buhl. “EPA was pleased to fund this safe and convenient way for the public to get rid of their old and unwanted meds.”

“Chemicals from medicines flushed down the toilet can pass untreated through sewage plants, damage septic systems, and contaminate nearby waterways,” said Beth Hinchey Malloy, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Great Lakes ecosystem specialist. “Medicines thrown in the trash can be scavenged or they have the potential to contaminate landfill leachate.”

“Some pharmacies will take back some unwanted medications, and some communities have one-day collection events, but there is no long-term solution to this growing and potentially dangerous wastestream,” said Susan Boehme, IISG coastal sediment specialist. “We field calls every week from community leaders, state officials, pharmacists, doctors, solid waste managers or environmental activists looking for information, support, and solutions.”

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TRENTON, New Jersey, August 28, 2008 (ENS) – Tens of thousands of New Jersey residents are drinking polluted water from private wells, according to a new state report, and radioactive contamination is the most common violation of state standards.

The new report from the state Private Well Testing Act Program covers the five-year period from 2002-2007 and includes samples from more than one out of eight of the estimated 400,000 private residential drinking water wells in New Jersey.

Issued without comment by New Jersey environmental officials, it shows that more than 12 percent of over 51,000 residential wells sampled failed to meet drinking water standards.

This means that people drinking from those 6,120 wells are drinking polluted water.

Found in 2,209 wells, the most frequent violation was radioactive contamination, called in the report “gross alpha particle activity.”

Water in New Jersey’s private wells tests
too high for radioactivity, arsenic and
other contaminants. (Photo by Ray
Rocket Creasey)

The term “gross alpha” does not refer to a specific contaminant, but to a group of radioactive elements found in drinking water. Data on gross alpha particle radioactivity in New Jersey private wells are included and evaluated in this report for the first time, the report states.

The next most common violations found through sampling were high levels of arsenic, found in 1,445 wells; nitrates, found in1,399 wells; fecal coliform or E. coli, found in 1,136 wells; volatile organic compounds, found in 702 wells; and mercury, found in 215 wells.

These figures do not count the contamination from lead, found in more than 5,200 wells, because the state Department of Environmental Protection considered the sampling results to be “questionable” in part due to “unrealistically high concentrations of lead.”

“Some results have confirmed expectations about ground water quality,” the report states. “In those counties requiring arsenic testing, the results have shown that arsenic is detected in the Piedmont region of New Jersey at a greater frequency than other areas of the State that are required to test for arsenic.”

“Other results are leading us to a better understanding of ground water quality,” it states. “The fecal coliform results have shown that the wells in the bedrock aquifers of New Jersey are more likely to have fecal coliform contamination than wells in the Coastal Plain.”

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an association of government workers in natural resources agencies, said today that the report shows the public is ignorant of the dangers of drinking well water because there is no requirement to inform neighbors of a polluted well in their vicinity, and there is no requirement to clean up the pollution.

“This report says that when you drink from a well in New Jersey, do so at your own risk,” said New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, a former analyst with the New Jersey DEP. “What is at the bottom of these wells proves that the state testing program is broken and in need of a total overhaul.”

“A classic example of what’s wrong occurred in Sussex County, Byram Township, where a well at a house being sold was found to be seriously contaminated with trichloroethylene,” said Wolfe.

“The public notification regulations suggest that the local health authority notify neighboring properties within at least 200 feet but because no homes were located within 200 feet of the property, neither the local health authority nor the state performed any subsequent sampling,” he said.

New Jersey does not require that pollution problems found in water from private wells be fixed. The report notes that the Private Well Testing Act and subsequent regulations “do not require water treatment if any test parameter standard level is exceeded.”

Neighbors of polluted wells are not required to be warned, because, the act states, “these individual tests are considered confidential, the exact location of the well test failure cannot be identified.”

Additionally, the Private Well Testing Act cannot be enforced due to lack of data, the report states, in these words, “Since no state agency has the ability to verify that all real estate transactions (sales and leases) subject to testing under the PWTA have been reported to NJDEP, the absence of results, along with errors or mistakes in the reported data, could have a significant impact on the evaluation and interpretation of the data presented.”

To read the report, “Well Test Results for September 2002 – April 2007,” click here [www.nj.gov].

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DALLAS, Texas, June 20, 2008 (ENS) – A former employee of Fujicolor’s film developing facility in Terrell, Texas pleaded guilty Wednesday to willfully concealing and covering up a material fact in wastewater discharge reports that must be filed under the federal Clean Water Act. Gerald Lakota admitted to reporting only wastewater samples that were within legal limits and discarding sampling results any that exceeded those limits.

The film finishing process at the facility generated a significant amount of process wastewater that contained silver. The U.S. EPA requires that industry pretreat pollutants such as silver in their wastewater in order to protect local sewers, wastewater treatment plants and the environment.

Silver attaches readily to surfaces and is toxic to aquatic wildlife. This property of silver has driven regulations which limit the concentration of silver that can be discharged into the environment.

According to the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors, while an employee at Fujicolor Processing, Lakota was responsible for environmental compliance at the plant. His job included preparing and submitting the plant’s wastewater discharge monitoring reports.

The silver used in film processing
is toxic to aquatic wildlife.
(Photo credit unknown)

In order to ensure compliance with the plant’s monthly discharge monitoring reports, Lakota selectively screened or “cherry-picked” samples of the facility’s wastewater effluent, the U.S. Justice Department said. Samples that were out of compliance with the facility’s pretreatment permit for silver were not reported on the Discharge Monitoring Reports as required by the facility’s permit.

By “cherry-picking” the samples, Lakota falsely presented the analysis of the final “good” samples as representative of the facility’s discharge, when he knew this was not true, and created the false impression that the facility was meeting its effluent limits required by the discharge permit.

“Complete and accurate wastewater discharge reports are absolutely necessary to assure compliance with environmental regulations,” said Warren Amburn, special agent in charge of the Dallas Area Office for EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division.

“Violators who submit false reports or bogus data undermine our efforts to protect the public and the environment and they will be vigorously prosecuted,” he said.

Lakota was charged in the Northern District of Texas and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. He faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release.

In a related matter, after disclosing the findings of an internal investigation to federal and state officials, Fujicolor pleaded guilty on September 6, 2007, and agreed to pay a $200,000 criminal fine for negligently violating its pretreatment permit at the photo-processing facility in Terrell.

Based on an internal investigation, Fujicolor discovered that from 1999 through July 2002, employees were selectively reporting to the city only test results that fell within permit limits.

Industrial facilities report results to local agencies for permit compliance purposes. Employees would send part of a sample to a laboratory for screening and, if the sample met permit limits, it would be submitted to the city. If a sample did not meet the silver limit, employees would keep collecting samples until they found one that fell within allowable limits.

Fujicolor discovered similar problems at its facilities in New Britain, Connecticut, and Tukwila, Washington.

Even earlier, in July 2002, the city of Terrell fined the facility $105,725 for exceeding its monthly limit for silver, based on samples submitted by the facility.

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HOLLISTER, California, May 1, 2008 (ENS) – People enjoying recreational activities at the Clear Creek Management Area in central California may not realize it but they are exposing themselves to high levels of asbestos in the soil, which increases their risk of developing cancer.

Based on the findings of a new study of asbestos exposure risk to visitors released Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management today issued an immediate temporary closure of 31,000 acres, a little less than half of the area.

The area in southern San Benito and western Fresno counties contains the largest deposit in the United States of asbestos, a known human carcinogen.

The Clear Creek Management Area hosts about 35,000 visitors a year – hikers, campers, hunters, botanists, rock collectors, and off-highway vehicle riders, including many families with children.

Vehicles traveling through the Clear Creek
Management Area raise
asbestos-laden dust.
(Photo courtesy EPA)

The EPA study found that riding motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles and driving SUVs creates the highest asbestos exposures by stirring up the naturally occurring asbestos in the soil. These riders and drivers are exposed to asbestos in the range seen in industrial environments, the study found.

“The EPA’s sampling results demonstrate that in areas where asbestos is present in the soil, activities that create dust also create asbestos exposure,” said EPA toxicologist Daniel Stralka, PhD.

“Higher dust-generating activities produce higher exposures and, therefore, higher risks,” he said.

Based on the asbestos exposure levels, the EPA estimated lifetime excess cancer risks. Many activities in the Clear Creek Management Area, CCMA, were found to have risks above the range that EPA considers to be acceptable.

The EPA data showed that children are generally exposed to higher asbestos concentrations than adults participating in the same activities.

In 2004 and 2005, EPA Region 9 collected air samples while EPA employees and contractors participated in typical recreational activities common to the CCMA.

The samples were collected from the breathing zone of individuals riding motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, driving and riding in SUVs, hiking, camping, sleeping in a tent, fence building, and washing and vacuuming vehicles after use at the CCMA.

“The asbestos levels measured in the breathing zone at CCMA are in the range seen in industrial environments and are at levels of concern, said Stralka. “Reducing or eliminating dust-generating activities in CCMA will reduce exposure and reduce the risk of developing asbestos-related disease.”

The EPA risk assessment only evaluated excess lifetime cancer risks. Asbestos can also cause debilitating and fatal diseases other than cancer, such as asbestosis and pleural disease.

The EPA risk assessment did not take other diseases into account because no asbestos toxicity values exist for non-cancer health effects, Stralka said, adding, “Non-cancer health effects from heightened asbestos exposure in the area may actually be more significant to total disease outcome than cancer.”

The Clear Creek Management Area spans more than 75,000 acres across San Benito and Fresno Counties and includes the Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site. It includes a 31,000 acre outcrop of naturally occurring asbestos.

Most of the area is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Both BLM and the EPA have advised users of the asbestos health hazard existing at the area since the early 1990s.

Now, BLM staffers will use the information provided in the EPA’s risk assessment to evaluate alternatives in an upcoming environmental impact statement for managing the Clear Creek Management Area.

BLM’s Hollister field manager Rick Cooper said protecting the public’s health and safety is the agency’s first priority. “Based on EPA’s results, we believe a temporary closure of most of the CCMA is in the public interest and we ask for the public’s cooperation.”

“With the closure in place, we will immediately move on with developing a long-term resource management plan for the area with the public’s full involvement,” said Cooper.

BLM will continue public scoping started last year for the resource management plan through June 21, 2008. Two public workshops – May 19 in Hollister and May 21 in San Jose – to discuss the planning process have been scheduled.

The BLM also is hosting an informational meeting May 8 at the Convention Center in Santa Clara for EPA representatives to present assessment findings with the public.

Cooper said the BLM will work closely with interested parties to develop management actions best suited to the resources and the needs of the public, taking into account local, regional, and national concerns.

“Early participation by all interested parties is encouraged and will help guide the planning process and determine the future management of public lands,” he said.

For further information contact the BLM in Hollister by phone at: 831-630-5000 or by e-mail, ca190@ca.blm.gov.

To view the EPA Asbestos study, click here [www.epa.gov].

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