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Testing
of suburb's home wells urged
Chicago Tribune -
11/14
Seventeen years
after tests of public wells showed a potential problem, state
officials advised Fox River Grove homeowners with private wells
Wednesday to get their drinking water checked for contamination.
That warning is
likely to be repeated in other areas as the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency sorts through old records to adhere to a new law
spurred by problems the past two years with ground-water
contamination in Downers Grove and Lisle.
Wednesday's
advisory is based on tests of Fox River Grove's public water
supply that were conducted in 1985 and 1990, when the state EPA
found unacceptable levels of the industrial solvent
trichloroethylene, or TCE, in a public well.
Although the
IEPA's findings were publicized at the time, there was no system
in place for the government to notify private well owners about
contaminated ground water. The new law requires the state to
notify private well owners when a nearby public water supply shows
contamination.
"Since we
don't regulate private wells, it's not something we thought
about," said Rick Cobb, deputy manager for the state EPA's
public water supplies division.
Drinking large
amounts of TCE may cause nausea, unconsciousness, impaired heart
function or death, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry.
Drinking small
amounts for long periods may cause liver and kidney damage, impair
the immune system, and affect fetal development, although the
agency says the extent of those effects is not clear.
In 1992, Fox
River Grove installed a treatment system to filter out TCE. Since
then, water piped to customers of the public system has met
federal standards.
The long-delayed
public advisory for private well owners is being issued now
because of an amendment to the state Ground Water Protection Act
that took effect in July. As a result, well owners across the
state are learning about potential problems with their water
supplies.
Contamination of
private wells in Downers Grove was discovered long after public
water supplies there had been tested for contaminants and
protections were put in place. But owners of private wells there
weren't notified about the contamination, and they discovered the
problem only recently. Eventually, the IEPA tested about 500
private wells in Downers Grove, and about 200 showed levels above
federal safe standards.
Now, the IEPA is
scouring its records to find other cases where testing of public
water supplies showed contamination. Under the new law, the agency
must turn over those records to the state Department of Public
Health, which then advises private well owners of the potential
problems.
"We're
expecting there will be 20 to 30 of these [public notices] going
out," said Joan Muraro, an IEPA spokeswoman.
The first
advisory went out last month to private well owners in Belvidere,
Boone County. The Fox River Grove advisory issued Wednesday was
the second, and the others are expected in the next few months.
In the future,
word of problems with public water supplies will be passed on to
private well owners under the new law--presumably, officials said,
in a more timely fashion than happened with the 1985 testing.
"This
loophole never should have existed," said Jonathan Goldman,
executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, a
statewide advocacy group.
Patrick McNulty,
administrator of the McHenry County Department of Health, said
there are about 200 private wells in the general area of Fox River
Grove identified by the state. Many are unlikely to be affected,
he said, because of the way ground water flows in the area.
McNulty said
anyone with questions should call his department at 815-334-4510.
The department will provide a list of private labs that can do
testing.
Stephen Tasch,
Fox River Grove village president, said his own home has a private
well that he will get tested because of Wednesday's advisory.
"It's just a
precautionary measure," Tasch said. "Our village water
is monitored all the time. It just makes sense that someone with a
private well should get tested."
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