Tiny Amounts of Drugs Found in Well

By ROB O’DELL

CORRECTION RAN AUGUST 21, 2008 A2

* The drug Iopromide was misspelled in “Tucson Water says pharmaceuticals, disinfectants pose no risk to customers” Tuesday on B1.

Tucson Water says pharmaceuticals, disinfectants pose no risk to customers

Trace amounts of mood-stabilizing drugs, chemicals injected before X-rays, disinfectants and antibiotics were found in a Tucson Water drinking-water well in Marana near Continental Ranch, city officials said Monday.

The chemicals, the traces of which are so small that they are expressed as parts per trillion, were uncovered in “sentry” testing by Tucson Water conducted once every three years. This testing is above and beyond the mandatory testing required under federal and state law.

Tucson Water spokesman Mitch Basefsky said the discretionary testing for the pharmaceuticals was conducted because of national and local reports about trace amounts of pills people take and personal-care products they use showing up in drinking water.

The trace amounts of the chemicals pose no health risks to water customers, Basefsky said, noting that it would require a customer to drink more than a million gallons of water to build up enough of the chemicals to constitute a medical dose of the drugs the city found.

There currently are no water-quality standards for the chemicals Tucson Water found in the well, which included:

* Carbamazepine: an anti-convulsant and mood-stabilizing drug used for treating epilepsy and bipolar disorder.

* Lopromide: a chemical injected into the body for use in X-rays as a contrast to better show a patient’s conditions.

* Sulfamethoxazole: an antibiotic often used to treat urinary tract infections.

* Triclosan: an anti-bacterial agent used as a disinfectant or antiseptic in consumer products.

The city tested for dozens of chemicals at two sites, finding the four substances at the Marana well. The other location tested was the point where Central Arizona Project water from the Colorado River is blended into the city’s drinking-water system. No pharmaceuticals were found there.

Finding the trace amounts of chemicals led to Tucson Water submitting a recommendation to City Manager Mike Hein that the city expand its discretionary “sentry” testing from once every three years to an annual program.

Hein approved the change, and he also required Tucson Water to expand the number of wells it would test throughout its service area.

“Since we found some, I thought it would be prudent to expand the area” where we are looking for the chemicals, Hein said.

Mark Shaffer, communications director for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said the state has no standards yet for these chemicals. “That’s probably coming, but it’s still early in the game,” he said.

The city tested the two locations because they were the most likely places where trace amounts of personal-care products and endocrine-disrupting compounds from pills would be found in the water supply.

The point where CAP water enters the system was tested because pharmaceuticals were found in Colorado River water in Lake Mead, Basefsky said. The Marana well is a quarter-mile from the Santa Cruz River, a point that collects much of the region’s water, including the wastewater from the nearby Ina Road wastewater plant and from the Roger Road plant farther down the river.

Treated effluent from wastewater plants is considered a primary source of pharmaceuticals found in drinking water.

“We recognized there is going to be continued attention to this,” Basefsky said of pharmaceuticals. “We only tested those sites because those are the most likely to show something exists.”

Basefsky said Tucson Water wants to track chemical levels to ensure that they continue to have no impact on the health of customers.

“It really doesn’t mean anything in terms of health impacts,” Basefsky said. “We’re concerned because we want to know what’s there and track trends.”

* Contact reporter Rob O’Dell at 573-4346 or rodell@azstarnet.com.

Originally published by ROB O’DELL, ARIZONA DAILY STAR.

(c) 2008 Arizona Daily Star. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.