38 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2018
PRESS HEALTH
TROUBLED WATERS:
CAUSE FOR CONCERN?
Public concern over reports of
water contamination has prompted
some to use water filtration systems.
The concern comes amid a steady
drumbeat of headlines about tests
revealing chemicals in local public
drinking water wells from the Hamptons
to the Gold Coast. Most notably,
officials are grappling with how to
respond to the discovery that 70 percent
of LI drinking water wells contain
1,4-dioxane, a chemical byproduct
found in many consumer products
that the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency considers likely to be
carcinogenic to humans. But there are
no scientific studies proving that Long
Island drinking water causes breast
cancer or other types of cancers.
“This problematic contaminate
is found in over 46 percent of all
personal care products, with high
levels in laundry detergents,” says
Adrienne Esposito, executive director
of Citizens Campaign for The
Environment, a Farmingdale-based
nonprofit that issued the 1,4-dioxane
report last year.
LI’s drinking water wells tap into
subterranean aquifers formed from
glaciers that melted eons ago. But
myriad issues are bubbling up in the
region’s water supply as tests have
found the presence of chemicals that
were either dumped or leached into
the ground.
In some cases, such as the nearly
2-mile-wide, 4-mile-long underground
plume of toxic chemicals
that originated in Bethpage and is
slowly spreading south, the culprit
is defense contractors that dumped
toxins decades ago.
In others, the issue is systemic, like
in Suffolk County, where 75 percent
of homes are not connected to sewers
and instead use antiquated septic
tanks that leach into the goundwater,
threatening the drinking water
supply.
Contaminants found in Long Island’s drinking
water supply have raised red flags.
(Shutterstock photo)
In the case of 1,4-dioxane, neither
New York State nor federal authorities
have set a standard for acceptable
levels to be in drinking water. The
state appointed a Drinking Water
Quality Council to study that and
related issues statewide, but officials
this month blew their deadline to
issue recommendations
a year after the council’s
first meeting.
“New York needs to
be a leader on drinking
water protection for
numerous emerging
contaminants, and provide
strong safeguards
to public health,” said
Kathleen Curtis, executive
director of Clean
and Healthy New York.
“This is particularly
crucial now, given EPA’s
failure to enact such protections
and the current
federal administration’s
broad attacks on environmental
protections.”
And with more questions than
answers on the source and threat of
chemicals found, that leaves residents
to fend for themselves by searching
out water filtration systems.
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