Researchers to test for drugs in water

By AMANDA RICKER Chronicle Staff Writer

Researchers in the Gallatin Valley say not much is known about the level of pharmaceuticals in the local water supply, but tests are about to get underway.

SEAN SPERRY/CHRONICLE Water from Hyalite Creek flows past melting snow and ice up stream from the City of Bozeman's water intake. “We’re in the process of selecting our sample sites right now,” Tammy Crone, water quality specialist for the Gallatin Local Water Quality District said Wednesday.

The Gallatin Local Water Quality District received a state grant last year to conduct a two-year study for pharmaceuticals ranging from caffeine to pain killers to anti-seizure medications in area sewage effluent, surface water and ground water. The final report is due in July of 2009.

A five-month Associated Press investigation recently determined that trace amounts of many of the pharmaceuticals we take to stay healthy are seeping into drinking water supplies across the nation and a growing body of research indicates that this could harm humans. Experts say sewer systems are the source of the pollution, with the medications getting into the water after they are excreted by people or when medicines are dumped down the drain.

Usually, pharmaceuticals in water are detected in very tiny amounts n parts per trillion. But there hasn’t been much research to determine safe levels of human consumption. There are no mandates to test, treat, limit or advise the public.

“We don’t want people freaking out,” Crone said. “It’s an emerging science.”

Preliminary results from a recent study to look for veterinary medications in Gallatin Valley water supplies found no traces of the substances above detection limits, Crone said.

The results were analyzed by Montana State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station Analytical Laboratory, the only lab in the state that has tested pharmaceuticals in water because few are qualified to deal with contamination levels so low.

No other studies have been conducted to determine the pharmaceutical levels in the Gallatin Valley.

But several studies have found trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in Montana, said Gretchen Rupp, director of the Montana University System Water Center.

The University of Montana found trace amounts in septic system leachate at Frenchtown High School in 2003. Two years later, Montana government offices found trace amounts in ground water, including some drinking water wells, in the Helena valley. Last year, trace amounts of pharmaceuticals were found in surface water below the Helena wastewater treatment site and in some wells in agricultural and rural subdivision areas.

Bozeman’s drinking water supply is relatively insulated from pharmaceutical contamination, Crone said.

Bozeman is the only municipality in Gallatin County that gets its drinking water from surface water, Crone said. Theoretically, the drinking water there should be OK because there aren’t many people living near the supply to contaminate it.

The city gets its water from Lyman Creek in the Bridger Mountains, and from Sourdough and Hyalite creeks in the Gallatin Mountains.

“We don’t think there’s a cause for concern because of the quality of our watersheds,” said Rick Moroney, superintendent of Bozeman’s water treatment plant, which treats the water from the creeks to supply residents.

Bozeman’s waste water is treated and put into the East Gallatin River. Cities downstream clean the water and pipe it to consumers for drinking, though none of the cities using it are in Gallatin County, Crone said.

Tom Adams, superintendent of Bozeman’s wastewater treatment plant, said he believes trace amounts of pharmaceuticals will be discovered in water that’s been treated by the plant and put into the river. Wastewater treatment plants don’t have the technology to remove pharmaceuticals.

“There’s no reason to believe that our population would be any different from any other city,” Adams said. “… It’s all going to come down to science and whether or not there is an impact on the human body at these very, very, minute levels ( of pharmaceuticals).”

Rupp suggested Montanans who are concerned about their drinking water install treatment units at their kitchen taps or use counter-top activated carbon filters. Unless treated by reverse osmosis, bottled water is not necessarily free of pharmaceutical compounds.

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