Potentially Unsafe Levels Of Radium In CT Drinking Water: Report

New information released by a nationwide environmental organization is ringing some alarm bells when it comes to a certain kind of "radioactive" contaminant in the country’s drinking water supply. Radium — the most common radioactive element found in tap water — was measured at levels above certain health guidelines in more than 100 Connecticut utilities, according to information released this month by the Environmental Working Group.

However, there is some debate over what levels present actual harm for humans.

Radium is a naturally-occurring radioactive element that is found at low levels in all soil, water, and rocks. Radioactive elements enter groundwater from natural deposits in the earth's crust, but levels can be higher when uranium mining or oil and gas drilling unearth these elements from the rock and soil, the EWG explains.

Exposure to radium over long periods of time can increase the risk of various types of cancer, and since radium "readily" accumulates in the body, it poses a greater cancer risk than most other radioactive elements, the USGS explains.

But it is important to note that health guidelines vary greatly from legal limits.

The EPA's limit for radium-226 is 5 picocuries per liter. Health guidelines used in this report are based on public health goals set by the California Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment, which limits to 0.05 picocuries per liter.

In Connecticut, no public water utilities have radium levels above EPA limits. Nationwide, utilities in 27 states had radium levels above the legal limit. A total of 40 utilities that serve a combined 138,370 people in Connecticut have Radium-226 levels above California’s Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment health guide limits and 133 utilities serving more than one million people in Connecticut have Radium-228 levels above the health limit.

You can explore the makeup of your water supply by visiting the EWG's Tap Water Database and putting in your ZIP code.

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The Regional Water Authority detected combined levels of Radium 226 and 228 at an average of .99 picocuries per liter in 2010. In 2013 none was detected in two samples.

The Aquarion Water Company didn’t detect Radium, according to EWG’s database.

While California's public health goals are not legally enforceable limits, they are guidelines for levels of contaminants that pose only a minimal risk to health, the EWG explains. The EPA's standard, which has come under fire from environmentalists, was set in 1977 and was revised in 2000, according to a rule timeline posted to the EPA website.

"Federal drinking water standards are based on the cost and feasibility of removing contaminants, not scientific determinations of what is necessary to fully protect human health," EWG said.

However, the EWG has also come under fire for the way it presents the data and some health guidelines. For example, The EPA defines the maximum contaminant level goal of chloroform at 70 ppb while the EWG said that 1 ppb was the standard defined by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

The state says on its website that 20 ppb poses “no significant risk,” according to Motherboard. EWG got the 1 ppb standard from a 2010 draft California Office of Environmental Health Hazard assessment, which found that the level is low enough for a one-in-a-million lifetime risk of cancer.

"EPA sets limits for radionuclides, including radium, in public drinking water through the Safe Drinking Water Act," EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones told Patch in an emailed statement in response to an inquiry about EWG's findings. "Local water suppliers must follow these limits and are required to inform citizens about the level of radionuclides in their water."
With reporting by Feroze Dhonoa and Kara Seymour

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