Filer Faces Arsenic Levels Issues

The arsenic level in the town’s water supply for the past decade has been bobbing above and below the safe limit for drinking

But city officials have been reluctant to ask voters to approve a water treatment plant because of the $5 million cost.

It now appears the city and its 2,500 residents can’t wait much longer.

Former Mayor Robert Templeman said he wanted to put off working on the arsenic problem until the city is “forced into it,” during his unsuccessful run for a third term in 2013.

Fixing the problem with a water treatment plant will be expensive, said Mayor Richard Dunn, who beat Templeman in the 2013 election. Something needs to be done, “but we are still looking into how to do it.”

Arsenic in Filer’s water supply was a hot topic then — and was again in this month’s city council race.

Councilman-elect Gary Deitrick said his attention to the arsenic issue and the city budget is one of the reasons he won a council seat. He is researching the issue now and plans to hit the ground running once sworn in.

Meanwhile, J-U-B Engineers is looking at different options for the city, said Rob Hegstrom, area manager. One plan J-U-B presented to the city has a price tag of $5.3 million — nearly $6,000 per each of the 900 water connections in town.

Residents won’t have to shoulder the entire cost, Hegstrom said. Grant money is available to foot some of the bill. The remainder would have to come from the city through user fees.

Meanwhile, one resident has taken care of her own drinking water for a fraction of the cost.

Shari Underwood, who unsuccessfully ran for council in the last election, installed a reverse-osmosis filter in her home. The $1,300 system, however, does not satisfy an EPA rule that requires arsenic be treated at the water source, not at the tap.

But it is an option for those whose health is at risk, Underwood said, until the city can take care of its arsenic problem.

Scientists and government officials are debating whether towns such as Filer actually have an arsenic problem.

Many — including Dunn and U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican who represents the Magic Valley and the eastern part of the state — question the science behind the Environmental Protection Agency’s 10-parts-per-billion arsenic limit for drinking water.

Until about 15 years ago, the EPA ruled that water with an arsenic level of 50 ppb was safe to drink. Then the EPA dropped the limit to 10 ppb — or 0.010 mg per liter — with a compliance date of 2006.

Arsenic levels in Filer’s wells have bounced from lows of 8 ppm to highs of 16 ppm since 2010, according to Idaho Department of Environmental Quality records.

Filer’s arsenic level for the past year barely came in below the 10 ppb limit only because a water sample in February showed zero arsenic, said Mike Brown, DEQ regional engineering manager in Twin Falls.

“The ‘nondetect’ sample was an anomaly,” Brown said. “But we had to average it in for the year.” The 0.0 ppb sample will drop out of the current range of samples in February, when it is replaced with a new reading.

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An outcry against the EPA’s more restrictive standard did little to change its policy. The EPA upheld the limit in October 2001, stating “10 ppb protects public health based on the best available science and ensures that the cost of the standard is achievable.”

Five years ago, the EPA announced it would conduct a 10-year review of its arsenic limits for drinking water. The review is required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, which directs federal agencies to assess the impact of their regulations on small entities — in this case, small municipal water providers like Filer

Filer is not alone in its arsenic dilemma.

Many wells south of the Snake River contain water exceeding 10 parts per billion. In Buhl, a few city wells had readings as high as 20 parts per billion. Some Castleford readings went higher. Both towns had to build multimillion-dollar treatment plants to satisfy the EPA.

Source: Magic Valley

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