Mon River's Unsafe Levels of Bromide Prompt Probe
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
17 September 2010
By Tim Puko
State environmental investigators are trying to determine the source of
a chemical that Carnegie Mellon University researchers say is
responsible for carcinogens in drinking water from the Monongahela
River.
Department of Environmental Protection workers are investigating
whether coal, power and oil- and gas-drilling industries are to blame
for unsafe levels of bromide in the river, said Ron Schwartz, assistant
director of DEP's southwest region, at a daylong symposium Thursday at
CMU. It could take weeks or months to determine who is at fault, he
said.
"There's very little, if anything, the (water) utilities can do to
remove that from their water," Schwartz said. "The key is to remove it
from the source points."
There is no significantly increased risk of cancer from the water right
now, he said.
That could change if the bromide problem persists, said Jeanne
VanBriesen, a CMU professor and director of Water Quality in Urban
Environmental Systems, a research center at CMU.
The Monongahela River basin provides drinking water for about 1 million
people in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
In July and August, VanBriesen's research team found bromide combined
at higher levels than usual with sanitizing chemicals in drinking water
from the Mon, creating carcinogenic byproducts. If the trend continues,
levels of carcinogens could remain elevated for months, violating
federal safe drinking water standards, she said.
Bromide is found naturally in seawater and underground rock formations
and is even in Mountain Dew. It also is used as a flame retardant for
upholstery.
If bromide is in the river water when the water is chlorinated, it can
combine with chlorine to create a disinfectant byproduct, VanBriesen
said.
Those byproducts can cause cancer, but they are common in drinking
water in trace amounts. Federal regulations require they be kept at
minimal levels.
Cycles of elevated pollution have plagued the Mon since 2008, and water
utilities have reported higher-than-expected levels of bromide during
peak times, VanBriesen said. Her team began its research a year ago
using water monitors throughout the Mon basin, and bromide levels
stayed low and steady until spiking this summer, she said.
VanBriesen began searching for bromide in a quest to discover whether
Marcellus shale gas drilling was polluting the river. Bromide and gas
come up together from deep shale deposits, making it a signature
component of wastewater from shale drilling, according to experts.
Power plants also use the chemical to clean their cooling towers, she
said.
The gas drilling industry is not likely at fault because the state
since 2008 has imposed strict limits on how companies dispose of
wastewater, said Matt Pitzarella, spokesman with Range Resources, a
Fort Worth-based gas company with an office in Cecil.
Doug Colafella, a spokesman for Allegheny Energy, which owns three
power plants on the Mon, declined to comment.
Tim Puko can be reached at tpuko@tribweb.com or 412-320-7991.