Arsenic in school's drinking water violates EPA limit

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

Manhattan Christian School has a problem with its drinking water, and it's likely to have plenty of company soon.

The small private school eight miles south of Manhattan drilled a new water well last year to provide more water for its new events center. However, the water from that new well contains levels of arsenic that are now unacceptable to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

That's because, after long debate, the EPA last year reduced the allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.

That means the school is in violation of water-quality laws. The matter has been turned over to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's enforcement division.

The violation occurred not because Manhattan Christian did anything wrong, according to DEQ officials. However, the water from the new well, at 15 parts per billion, no longer meets EPA standards.

EPA maintains the new rule, which took effect on Jan. 23, 2006, is needed to protect people from a host of maladies.

“Long-term exposure to low concentrations of arsenic in drinking water can lead to skin, bladder, lung and prostate cancer,” the EPA says on its Web site. Non-cancerous effects of low level ingestion “include cardiovascular disease, diabetes and anemia, as well as reproductive and developmental, immunological and neurological effects.”

Others dispute the validity of those concerns.

Terry Anderson, executive director of PERC, a free-market environmentalism think tank in Bozeman, was critical of reducing the standards when the issue was being debated and he remains critical today.

He noted that the new limits are based on long-term exposure levels that extend for decades.

“There's no way anybody's going to consume that much” at the school, Anderson said, adding that the risks of exposure are low, while the costs of preventing it can be prohibitive.

Meanwhile, the rule is the rule. And Manhattan Christian officials are wondering how they're going to comply.

“I've got a lot more questions than I do answers,” said Sylvia Ypma, business manager for the 344-student school. “We're looking at what our options are.”

There are only two of them, according to Frank Gessaman, of DEQ's enforcement division: buy a treatment system or find another source of water.

And neither one is cheap, Ypma said.

Calling them “very rough estimates,” she said a new well would cost $25,000, and a treatment system would cost $35,000.

Plus, there's no guarantee the new well would produce acceptable water.

Arsenic occurs naturally in all of the drainages leading from Yellowstone National Park. It also occurs naturally in a number of other areas around the country. EPA estimates that 4,100 water systems, serving approximately 13 million people, will need to treat their water for arsenic or find other water supplies.

Most of those systems are small, serving less than 10,000 people.

“I expect to see a number of systems finding themselves in the same boat,” said Kate Miller, head of DEQ's compliance section. “This is a pretty low standard that they set. Now we've got to find a way to help our little systems get into compliance.”

Ypma said she's confident her school will figure out a solution, but nobody knows what it is yet.

“The new rules on arsenic are a big problem,” she said. “We're a symptom.”

At this point, students and staff are still drinking the water, she said.

“Am I afraid to drink the water? No. I've got it in my mug right now,” she said.

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