on groundwater from either a private domestic well or a small water system not regulated by the state.


“For these residents, there is little


or no information on the quality of their drinking water,” according to the report. Nitrate is one of many contami- nants that threaten drinking water quality. As such, the risks to human health have to be put into perspective compared to contaminants such as arsenic. Because of its toxicity, EPA’s standard for arsenic in drinking water is .01 ppm to protect people from long- term, chronic exposure.


“From a public health standpoint … arsenic is where you’ll see the issue,” said Bruce Macler, regional toxicologist with EPA. “Nitrate is associated with methemoglobinemia; you don’t see cases of [that]. So from an overt sense, I worry far more about the arsenic than the nitrate.”


Methemoglobinemia, also known as blue baby syndrome, is a blood dis- order in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin – a form of hemoglobin – is produced, according to the New York Times Health Guide. Hemoglobin


is the molecule in red blood cells that distributes oxygen to the body. Methemoglobin cannot release oxygen. In methemoglobinemia, the hemoglo- bin is unable to release oxygen effec- tively to body tissues.


Davis acknowledged there is a debate in the literature over whether long-term exposure to nitrate causes cancer. “There’s a whole set of scien- tists that believes it does, even with our maximum contaminant level, and there’s a whole set that believes it doesn’t,” she said. “Because of the complexity of trying to tease out what one contaminant does to the body vs. all the contaminants we are exposed to, it’s very diffi cult to make those scien- tifi c cases.”


While epidemiological studies tying nitrate-contaminated drinking water to blue baby syndrome are lack- ing, advocates for DACs say that does not diminish the need to improve conditions.


“Each day mothers like Maria Elena have to worry about whether she has enough water in fi ve-gallon jugs for her family’s basic needs,” Firestone


Richard Smith, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Monterey County, tests for nitrogen. Salinas Valley is one of two pilot areas studied in a report on nitrate to the California Legislature.


said. “Schools like Stone Corral Elementary (Tulare County) have to pay $500 to $600 a month on bottled water for the kids and staff to have safe drinking water at school. Others have to pay for a ride to get to a neighboring town to fi ll up fi ve-gallon jugs to bring home.


“We found that many families thought that it was safe if they boiled the water, which for nitrate and arsenic just concentrates contamination more,” Firestone continued. “We spoke with a pregnant woman who was drinking the water in a labor camp with levels of nitrates more than fi ve times the maximum contaminant level. She and her family had been drinking and cooking with the water for years with- out understanding what the dangers were and what she should do to avoid exposure. She had already had one miscarriage. Other communities, like Arvin (Kern County), have had to put on hold things like affordable housing projects, health clinics, expansions of small businesses, and other basic eco- nomic development projects because they had to close contaminated wells


See a map of contaminated wells


8


Western Water


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