Jon Ouellette

Sports Editor

The quality of the water we drink, bathe in and wash our clothes with is something many Americans take for granted. With excess levels of cancer-causing chemicals found in their water, some citizens from Orono and Veazie think it’s past time we start paying more attention to it, and past time the public is made aware of the problem.

About 15 citizens from the two communities attended the Water District meeting last Tuesday to discuss trihalomethanes, or THMs, a carcinogen that has been running rampant in the municipality’s water at least since the EPA mandated testing of water quality in 2004.

In addition to the fact that residents are ingesting and absorbing carcinogens on a regular basis, one of the biggest concerns for folks around this community is the apparently shoddy testing methods being used by the district.

“What I find unusual about this, as a former science teacher, is that the pipe you tested the water from is 16 inches in diameter,” said Suzanne Malis-Andersen, a Veazie resident. “The water that comes from my house does not come from a 16-inch diameter pipe.

“My health is at issue. All of the residents’ health is an issue here,” she added. “I want to know what’s coming out of my faucet. Come into our houses; test our water. Then we’ll get accurate numbers here.”

The water in Orono and Veazie has been in compliance with EPA guidelines through the first three quarters of 2013, but some residents believe those numbers may not represent the real picture.

According to Orono-Veazie Water District records, the water that is tested comes from a hydrant that is flushed prior to testing, something a few citizens have labeled “a Band-Aid approach” that doesn’t actually cover anything and may just be a cover up to “pass the test,” so to speak.

“To suggest to us that having a testing site in a high-flow, large diameter pipe area is covering the waterfront, if you will, and the variability of THM, is unacceptable,” Veazie resident Joan Perkins said. “To flush the day before a test and then send in the water? That’s disingenuous. For 88 days of that quarter, I was drinking that dirty water that was in the pipe. But on Day 89 you’re flushing, and on Day 90 you’re testing, and you’re telling the state that everything’s good. That, to me, is a lie. It’s a dangerous public health lie. The residents of Veazie are unwilling to accept this into the future.”

The EPA mandates that all tested water come from a faucet, not a high-diameter pipe.

Another concern is the lack of disclosure the public has received from the OVWD, who serves 6,000 water outlets in the area, with regards to the high levels of THMs in their water.

“They’ve really kept it under their hats,” Perkins said. “They’ve chosen to take the course that if they’re not required to notify, they don’t notify. I think they owe us all notification. We will only begin to see progress once people begin to be notified so that they can protect themselves with things like filters on their faucets and showers.”

According to information compiled from Water District reports from around Maine communities, the yearly average of THMs — which have been linked to liver, kidney, bladder, colon and rectal cancer as well as nervous system problems — in Orono and Veazie has exceeded the upper limit allowed by the EPA almost every year since 2004.

Chlorine, the main disinfectant in this municipality’s water, and other disinfectants combine with organic matter to create these THMs.

Although the goal is to not have any traces of carcinogens, the maximum amount of THMs allowed in the water is 80 parts per billion. According to the OVWD records, water in the municipality tested in at 89ppb in 2005, 96ppb in 2006, 80ppb in 2007, 96ppb in 2008, 89ppb in 2011 and 84ppb in 2012. The next highest THM average of any municipality was in Wiscasset, who tested in at 26.37ppb in 2012.

Water tested at the University of Maine’s Memorial Union in 2009 was found to have double the upper limit of THMs allowed by the EPA at 177ppb, but that information was not disclosed and not included in the OVWD’s report to the state because it was not an official OVWD testing site at the time.

As of Oct. 1 of this year, the Union was added as a second testing site in addition to the Veazie Community School, which has served as the primary testing site since 2004.

The district’s response to this multi-faceted issue has been one of progress.

“I want to make it clear that we are in compliance, and we have been and the state does understand where we do our testing,” OVWD Chairman Scott Hall said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t evaluate those things and look at them closer, but we are in compliance with the regulations that we are required to operate under.

“It has not been ignored,” he continued. “We’ve hired consultants; We continue to try and refine the treatment process. One of the reasons we have this issue is because of the chlorine. Well, one of the reasons we have chlorine is to deal with a completely different issue. This is a byproduct of trying to make sure we don’t have other immediate issues in our water. It’s a big balance. It’s a balance that’s not simple.”

Citizens at the meeting provided the OVWD board members with a list of ways to continue to move forward in eliminating this issue, such as methods of notifying residents of the problem, testing methods and possibilities for remediation such as the use of ozone and ultraviolet water treatments.

“There’s places like Bangor, whose [maximum THM] level is 20.8. They’re using ozone and ultraviolet to disinfect their water,” Malis-Andersen said. “Ozone was used in France in 1906 to disinfect water. This works. Our first waste water plant in 1984 in California used UV, ozone and peroxide. It works.”

“Something needs to be done. I don’t know what that is but something needs to be done soon,” said Kathy Brooks, a Veazie resident. “What are we to do? We can buy bottled water, but that’s not the huge issue here. It’s the showering, washing dishes — your pores open, your body absorbs it.”

OVWD Superintendent Dennis Cross says he’s asked the engineering firm who deals with the water testing, Wright-Pierce, to make an estimate of how much it would cost to switch from chlorine to ozone and ultraviolet treatments.

“Having a list and your thoughts in front of us today, from my perspective, will be something we continue to consider,” Hall said. “We have been working as hard as we can to make progress. I understand that for some folks, that’s not good enough. I understand that. We will continue to do as much as we can going forward to reduce [the problem] as much as possible.

“We have consultants on board to help us,” he continued. “That is the reason, I believe, that you see the reduction [in THM levels in 2013]. Now, can we do more? Can we continue to work on it? Absolutely. That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’ll continue to do because we do care and we do take this seriously.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine has one of the highest cancer rates in the country. The disease accounted for one quarter of all Maine deaths in 2009.