Water, water everywhere?

Unfortunately, while the following excerpts are not current, almost daily one can read of similar-or worse-events in your favorite daily newspaper:

The following data was reported by Wendy Koch - Hearst/Examiner Washington Bureau

Date of Outbreak State Location Cause of Illness Number of Cases

Mar 1993     Wisconsin    Milwaukee   Cryptosporidium 400,000(104 Deaths)
Jan 1987     Georgia      Carrollton  Cryptosporidium    13,000
Sep 1987     Pennsylvania Multiple    Norwalk-like virus 5,000
May 1992     Oregon       Talent      Cryptosporidium    3,000
May 1988     Texas        Travis Cnty Shigella-Sonnei    900
Apr 1989     Arizona      Sedona      Norwalk-like virus 900
Aug 1991     Pennsylvania Reading     Cryptosporidium    551 
Apr 1987     Pennsylvania Blossburg   Giardia            513
Nov 1993     Missouri     Gideon      Salmonella         486(4 Deaths)
Jan-Apr 1994 Nevada       Las Vegas   Cryptosporidium    100(19 Deaths)
Dec 1989     Missouri     Cabool      E. Coli bacteria   243

Published in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle December 1, 1996-Sources:CDC & EPA

In a related article, Ms. Koch reported that a study conducted in 32 cities by the Washington based National Association of People with AIDS stated that six cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis, Newark, St. Petersburg and Washington are at "extremely high risk" of having a Cryptosporidium problem evolve into a serious public health problem.

Cited as "high risk" cities were 22: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New Haven, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, St, Louis and West Palm Beach.

Cited as "low risk" cities were 3: Milwaukee, Seattle and Tampa. These cities test weekly for the parasite, and have plans to notify the public should an outbreak occur.

Cryptosporidium can cause death for people with weakened immune systems due to AIDS, HIV, organ transplant recipients or chemotherapy patients. For those of us who don't fall into one of those categories, the parasite can cause diarrhea, vomiting, low-grade fever and abdominal cramps.

NOTE: The following article appeared in the NY Times(Electronic Edition) on
December 22, 1998 - it appears here verbatim....

New Jersey Orders 9 Water Systems to Reduce Radium Levels

By JENNIFER PRESTON
aquifer diagram

TRENTON -- The Whitman administration Monday ordered nine public water systems
to take steps to remove radium from the
water supply after new testing methods
found radium levels that exceeded
Federal standards.

State officials said the elevated levels of naturally occurring radium in the water
systems did not pose an immediate health threat, but they said that long-term, chronic exposure to the contaminants could increase
the risk of certain types of cancer, particularly bone cancer.

Seven of the public water systems found with elevated levels serve
about 60,000 people in Atlantic and Cumberland Counties in southern
New Jersey, state officials said. The two other water systems are in
Sussex County and provide service to about 128 people in a mobile
home park and an apartment complex in Vernon Township, officials
said.

The elevated levels were found by a new way of testing for a particular
radioactive element, called radium 224. Because New Jersey is the first
state to use the new testing method, state and Federal officials said that
they do not know how the radium levels here compared with other
states. Federal officials are now using the same method on public water
systems in 27 other states. After reviewing the results, Federal officials
may consider imposing new regulations requiring such tests for all
public water systems, but right now they are just advising states to look
at New Jersey's approach.

"We have notified other states to be on the lookout for what New Jersey
is doing, and to learn from it," said Rich Cahill, a spokesman for the
United States Department of Environmental Protection.

New Jersey began testing all of the state's 615 public community water
systems in 1997 after scientists noticed discrepancies in test results of
water sampled from the Toms River section of Dover Township. State
and Federal officials were testing the water for contaminants that may
have contributed to a higher incidence of some childhood cancers in the
area. (Researchers have not yet determined the cause of the unusual
cancer rate.)

Because radium 224 has a very short half-life, 3.7 days, officials
determined that they needed to test water samples within 48 hours of
being collected. Federal guidelines do not require testing within a
particular time frame, so this particular radioactive element decayed
before it could normally be detected.

Barker G. Hamill, chief of the state's Safe Water Division, said that the
state has so far completed sampling at 70 percent of the 615 public
systems. Of those systems tested, 413 comply with state and Federal
safe drinking water radiological standards, and 29 are being closely
monitored, in addition to the 9 systems that have been ordered to take
action to remove radium. He said that testing at the remaining 164
systems will be completed by July.

Hamill said corrective steps for the nine water systems include closing
the contaminated wells and drilling new ones.

The state's testing did not include private wells. Officials have
previously urged homeowners with private wells to test for radioactivity
in their ground water and consider adding a water softener or take other
measures to remove the radium.

State officials reiterated that recommendation today, particularly to
homeowners whose ground water is drawn from the
Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer in southern New Jersey. But Hamill
emphasized that there was no cause for alarm. "If you drank a half a
gallon of water a day for 70 years, it would cause one additional cancer
death in 10,000 people," Hamill said. The American Cancer Society
estimates that 4,300 Americans in 10,000 will develop cancer at some
point in their lives, and that about half of those will die of cancer.

Eric Evenson, district chief of the United States Geological Survey in
New Jersey, which is conducting the radium study in 27 other states,
said that there were several factors contributing to the elevated levels in
the aquifer in southern New Jersey. Those factors include high acidity,
which strips metals, like radium, and releases it into the water.

"Based on what we know of geology and hydrology there is no reason to
believe that New Jersey is unique," Evenson said.

Curtis Fisher, executive director of the New Jersey Public Interest
Research Group, said that the state's findings demonstrate "that we are
not looking hard enough for things that could have the potential for
public health problems."

"It is amazing what happens when you look for something," Fisher said.
"We clearly need more research and information. Radium is obviously a
potential problem. But there may be other problems. We know that there
are 70,000 chemicals used by industry and of those, less than 20,000
have been studied. Of them, less than 100 are tested for in public
drinking water."

Published Tuesday, January 5, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News

E. coli shows up in fair's water

Shut off: Testing reveals bacterial contamination in county fairgrounds's trouble-plagued well system.

BY BONITA BREWER AND JASON BULLOCK
Contra Costa Times

The drinking water for most of the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton has been shut off because routine monthly tests found it was tainted with the E. coli bacterium, according to fairgrounds spokesman Al Amador.

County health officials said they don't know of anyone becoming sick
from drinking the water.

The well system was shut down Wednesday. Crews then flushed out the system and its tanks with chlorine and the water lines have been converted to Pleasanton's municipal water system.

As an extra precaution, fairgrounds patrons and employees are being advised through building notices not to drink the water before it is boiled for three minutes.

Amador said the regular water service could be
restored by Thursday, after the water is retested.

Ninety percent of the fairgrounds, including the racetrack, stables, golf course and exhibition buildings, is served by an internal well system for both drinking and irrigation. Administrative offices and the satellite wagering facility receive city water, which was not contaminated.

Three water samples taken from different areas of the fairgrounds on Dec. 16 turned up positive for E. coli, said Cliff Bowen, district engineer for the state department of health.
Fairgrounds officials weren't alerted of the problem until last week.

Bowen said they don't know the extent of contamination. He also said they don't know which strain of E. coli bacteria is involved. Some strains can be deadly or cause severe cramping, vomiting, shock and other symptoms.

The contamination apparently occurred sometime between mid-November and Dec. 16.

``It's not from anything we can immediately identify,'' Amador said.

Amador said the contamination may have occurred shortly before Dec. 16, when winds from a major storm blew the lid off the main water storage tank. He said it's believed that birds flying overhead excreted fecal matter containing the E. coli bacteria into the water.

He didn't know how long the lid was off the tank, but said the system is checked every day.

The fairgrounds water system has seen numerous problems over the past several years. An Environmental Protection Agency report indicated that in 1993 and 1995, there was improper monitoring of the system and, sometimes, no monitoring at all.

The fairgrounds then began monthly testing, but failed three water inspections in 1998 -- in April, June and October. Those tests showed problems with coliform, a non-harmful bacterium that can indicate other problems, such as the potential for E. coli.

Bowen said the state ordered the fairgrounds to install a chlorine disinfection system, but did not impose other penalties. Amador said the chlorinator, to be installed in February at a cost of $15,000, ``will eliminate the problems from this point on.''

Still, Bowen said there have been an unusual number of violations.

``It shouldn't be occurring, and that's why a compliance order was issued,'' Bowen said.

The fairgrounds wants additional testing to make sure there hasn't been an error.

In addition, the health department is looking into why the Redwood City lab's results weren't given to the fairgrounds for two weeks.

Published September 12, 1999 in The New York Times.

2d Death Confirmed in E. Coli Outbreak Near Albany; 60 Are Hospitalized
By THOMAS J. LUECK
New York state and local health officials confirmed on Saturday that a 79-year-old Gansevoort man was the second person to die in an outbreak of E. coli bacteria infections in the Albany area.

The authorities also raised the number of people hospitalized with the illness Saturday to 60, two more than on Friday, according to the state Health Department.

Although almost all of the cases have been linked to the contamination of a well at the Washington County Fair in Greenwich. The authorities said that four people had become ill since Friday after attending the Schaghticoke Fair in Rensselaer County, and E. coli infections were suspected.

John Signor, a spokesman for the State Health Department, said investigators had determined that two food vendors had moved their booths from the fair in Washington County to the one in Rensselaer County, and may have carried contaminated well water with them.

"If you have not had symptoms of the infection yet, you probably are not going to get them," Signor said. "The peak has passed."

He said the main threat of infection had been from well water drawn at the Washington County Fair on Sept. 1, and since the strain of E. coli involved, O157:H7, has an incubation period of nine days, few more infections were expected.

With health officials on high alert in much of upstate New York, residents of Phoenix, an Oswego County village 135 miles east of Albany, were advised Saturday to boil drinking water after inspectors found E. coli in a test of school water fountains. No illness was reported.

Signor said state officials believed that the contamination in Phoenix was unrelated to the outbreak around Albany because the two were separated by great distances, and because isolated cases of E. coli contamination are common across the nation, with about 20,000 reported annually.

Still, state health officials, assisted by several local agencies, continued to monitor the outbreak near Albany Saturday and to warn people of the symptoms of E. coli infection, which include diarrhea and abdominal pains.

Signor said the initial cause had been identified as a combination of heavy rain on Aug. 26 and the proximity of the Washington County well to a farmyard containing cows, manure and an area being excavated.

He said the well, which had been tested by health inspectors as recently as June, had been contaminated by runoff from the rain, which carried bacteria from the manure into the well water.

He said the two vendors who may have transported some of the contaminated water to the Schaghticoke Fair "would not have done so intentionally." Nonetheless, he said people who suffer symptoms of E. coli after having attended the fair in Rensselaer County should consult their doctors, particularly if they consumed food or drinks from either of the two vendors -- O'Sullivan Crows Enterprise Taco Stand or S&W Caterers, which sells lemonade, coffee and ice cream.

But Signor said the four people in Rensselaer County might not have contacted E. coli infections at all, but "just happened to get diarrhea."