Reprinted, with permission, from the Columbus Dispatch, July 11, 1998
By Ann Fisher and Jill Riepenhoff
Dispatch Staff Reporters
Arsenic levels twice the federal limit have been detected in well fields serving two Perry County schools, prompting the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to order the schools to stop using the water for drinking and cooking.
As a result, local officials are seeking construction of a 6.5-mile waterline from Thornville to provide safe water to the schools.
Perry County commissioners have asked the General Assembly for emergency financial aid to begin construction of the waterline from the Northern Perry County Water Supply System in time to serve Sheridan High School and Sheridan Middle School this fall.
The Ohio EPA, in a letter dated July 2, notified commissioners that routine testing this summer had detected the elevated arsenic levels in the water. A second set of testing confirmed arsenic levels averaging 98 parts per billion, said Richard Ansel, of the EPA office in Logan.
Federal law mandates that arsenic in drinking water should not exceed 50 parts per billion.
Arsenic is a carcinogen, although there is debate over its possible links to cancers such as skin and liver, according to the U.S. EPA.
Oral exposure to arsenic can result in thickening of the skin; problems in the nervous, gastrointestinal and circulatory systems; hearing impairment; and diabetes.
Extreme doses of inorganic arsenic over a considerable period of time can result in death.
Ansel said the EPA is unsure how long the groundwater has had the elevated level of arsenic. The arsenic found in the wells is the inorganic form of the mineral and thus is naturally occurring in the environment, Ansel said.
"Arsenic in groundwater in Ohio is the exception rather than the rule. It's pretty rare to find it above 50 parts per billion," he said.
Arsenic levels in the school wells have increased rapidly, Northern Local board member Michael Pettit said, noting a 1995 reading detected 8.5 parts per billion.
"We urge the House of Representatives to help us out by making this an emergency situation," Pettit said yesterday. "We have enough financial problems in this district without another one."
The financially challenged Northern Local district is home to the school-funding lawsuit filed in 1991 by a coalition of districts that claimed Ohio's public-school funding system was inadequate and inequitable. In March 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed, ordering the General Assembly to revamp the system.
A review by Perry County Common Pleas Judge Linton Lewis of the legislature's solutions will begin late next month.
Pettit said the estimated cost to install the new waterline is $600,000, and that plans call for the line to be "in the ground and ready to use by the end of August."
The waterline extension already was part of a five-year plan to expand the waterlines throughout northern Perry County. The discovery of elevated levels of arsenic put it on the fast track, said Michael Heavener, president of the board of commissioners.
The waterline would extend from the intersection of Rts. 13 and 204 and follow Rt. 13 to the Sheridan schools, Pettit said.
EPA officials this week advised Perry County and school officials that construction of new wells is unlikely to solve the problem and that treating the present well water could be too expensive.
The Ohio EPA has recommended that residents who live near the schools have their private wells tested.
Heavener said the Perry County Health Department has been instructed to petition state health officials to test, at state expense, private wells in the vicinity of the schools' wells.
Issue: Some small communities may need help in paying for safe drinking water.
How would you pay to upgrade a small community water system?
In 1996, the U.S. Congress established a new drinking water state revolving loan fund. Each state develops its own program to dispense these funds. States receive annual capitalization grants once they meet program requirements.
This new program is similar to the state revolving loan funds that have been available for wastewater systems. However, this program has some significant differences. Much was learned from the wastewater systems program, and drinking water and wastewater systems each have special needs.
Ohio's program for the water supply revolving loan account is jointly administered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's division of drinking and groundwater (DDGW), the division of environmental and financial assistance (DEFA), and the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA). An intended use plan is adopted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency director for distributing these funds each year after public review and comment.