CSWAB UPDATE:
WDNR Agrees to Demand for Safe Water Guidelines
After countless phone calls,
emails, and meetings, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has
finally agreed to CSWAB’s petition to initiate a process that will provide
rural neighbors of Badger Army Ammunition Plant with safe drinking water
guidelines for all forms of an explosive known as DNT.
The break-through came when CSWAB
contacted top administrators within the WDNR late last week, raising concerns
about the 6-month delay in a process that should have taken only a few weeks to
complete. The WDNR’s Bureau of Drinking Water has drafted a letter
that will be sent to the Wisconsin Division of Public Health shortly, the
requisite first step in establishing drinking water advisories.
Without these health-based
guidelines, affected families do not know if levels of DNT found in their
drinking water are considered safe or not. They are also ineligible for
bottled water from the Army, and federal funding for additional offsite
investigations is largely out of reach.
Once the Division of Health
receives the request from WDNR, toxicologists will begin developing interim
health advisory levels for well water for 2,3-, 2,5-, 3,4-, and 3,5-DNT.
Wisconsin
currently has standards for only 2 of the 6 forms (isomers) of DNT; the safe
level for 2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT is less than 0.05 micrograms per
liter. If concentrations reach or exceed recommended levels, health
officials recommend that people do not use the water.
DNT is absorbed through the
gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, and skin. Potential health
effects include cancer, methoglobinemia (“blue baby” syndrome),
cardiovascular or blood toxicity, liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, neurotoxicity,
and reproductive toxicity.
In addition to DNT, carbon
tetrachloride, chloromethane, chloroform, nitrate, ethyl ether, and
bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate have been detected in drinking water wells near
Badger. State law requires the WDNR to safeguard groundwater resources.
Citizens for Safe Water Around
Badger (CSWAB) was organized in 1990 by neighbors of the closing Badger Army
Ammunition Plant and is now a national leader on military toxics issues.
END
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Laura Olah,
Executive Director
Citizens for Safe
Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand's Bay
South
Merrimac, WI 53561
(608)643-3124
Email:
info@cswab.org
Website:
www.cswab.org