Michael Rosenthal

(8/2018) Events in recent years have called attention to water quality as water flows from our taps into the kitchen, the bathroom, the yard, for all its multiple uses. There was a time when we took for granted the fact that this water was pure, clean, and safe, and often it is. But the crises in drinking water in recent years, particularly the Flint, Michigan, story, have made us realize that we cannot take the assumption that our water is clean and safe for granted. Emmitsburg residents have recently received the Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, and after some more general discussion, we’ll talk specifically about the report. Don’t panic! Our water quality is good – details to follow!

As I wrote in an earlier article, I first became interested in water quality issues when I taught at Bard College on the Hudson River in New York, and my family and I lived on the Bard campus. Our water came from the Sawkill Creek and was treated by the College and then routed into our house, the chemistry laboratory, and the rest of the Bard campus. Monitoring this water quality not only provided for the safety of the college population, but it also provided an ongoing research project for me and my chemistry students. The Sawkill Creek flowed into the Hudson River, which has had its own contamination problems over the years, especially PCBs, about which we have written in this column as well. Bard also discharged its treated waste water into the Sawkill…but fortunately and wisely the waste entered the creek below the spot where water was removed for community use!

Emmitsburg water comes from five wells, three in Emmitsburg and two within a mile on Hampton Valley Road, as well as from Rainbow Lake on Hampton Valley Road. All of these sources are included in this recent report. Water drawn from these sources (which comes out your home water taps) gets to these sources by traveling over the surface of the land or through the ground, and in doing so dissolves naturally occurring minerals. It can also pick up substances from the presence of animals or from human activity. Fortunately, there is virtually no likelihood here in Emmitsburg for the presence of radioactive materials in our water, from either natural or man-produced sources, or from other major industrial operations.

The water molecule, H2O, is polar, which means it has a negative end (the O) and has positive ends (the Hs). That enables it to dissolve substances that are polar as well by the attraction of positive to negative charges. This is why salt (NaCl) dissolves so well in water. Non-polar molecules dissolve in water less well, but still may dissolve to some extent. Non-dissolved materials such as soil or non-soluble waste can also be washed along in water, and both suspended and dissolved materials can lend to the coloration of water.

Some of the substances which should not be found in tap water are viruses and bacteria (from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife), inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, pesticides and herbicides, organic contaminants (from industrial processes and other sources), and of course, radioactive contaminants (from nature or man-directed activity).

Small levels of contaminants can be expected in both tap water and bottled water, but it is obviously important that the level of these contaminants is below the danger level.

Emmitsburg water is regularly tested for a variety of substances, and it is important that the level is below the Action Level Goal (ALG). If this level is exceeded, action must be taken to ensure the safety of those drinking the water or utilizing the water in food preparation. For a start, let’s look at copper and lead, two substances that are clearly recognized as potentially dangerous contaminants when present above the safe level. There is good news for us here – Emmitsburg water tests very low in copper and zero in lead.

Other regulated contaminants include chlorine, haloacetic acids, trihalomethanes, barium, and nitrate. It’s time to recall your high school chemistry course! All of these are regularly tested-for, and happily the levels in Emmitsburg are all safe. Why are they present at all? These chemicals are used to disinfect water from biological contamination, and small traces of them therefore remain. Nitrate arrives in the water from fertilizer use as well as from natural erosion.

Is bottled water guaranteed to be safe, or at least safer than tap water? I would hope that regulations are successful in controlling the contaminant level in bottled water, and I think they are.

Lead is a particularly dangerous contaminant, and it often enters the water supply through corrosion of lead pipes. New construction avoids lead pipes, but it is probably a good idea to ensure in older homes that the intake pipes are safe.

Now for some thoughts on social applications of drinking water. Many restaurants offer their patrons the choice of bottled water instead of tap water. There was a period when we lived in New York State that the New York City restaurants aggressively tried to convince you to buy bottled water at a highly elevated price. The interesting thing about this practice is that New York City obtains its tap water from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains, and this water is about as good and clean as natural water can be. As Mel Brooks said, "Everything is Show Biz." Of course there is no guarantee about cleanliness in a restaurant, so bottled water does offer some assurances. In our household, we drink a lot of bottled water and canned seltzer water, though I am very impressed by the Emmitsburg Drinking Water Report and confident about the safety of the tap water.

If you have further questions about Emmitsburg water, the report suggests you contact Dan Fissel at 301-600-6300 or dfissel@emmitsburgmd.gov.

An update: The plastic waste problem, about which we’ve written before, continues to have new developments, some better and some worse. There is a move to limit or eliminate the use of plastics that end up in the oceans. One of the better developments is that leaders at the G7 summit in Quebec have signed an agreement that is meant to boost recycling and reduce single-use plastics. Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. signed the Oceans Plastics Charter. The United States and Japan abstained!

The document calls for working with industry to make all plastics reusable, recyclable, or recoverable by 2030. Leaders here want to recycle or reuse 55% of plastic packaging by 2030 and recover all plastics by 2040, as well as significantly reduce single-use plastics. There is one good piece of news from the United States on this topic. The CEO of the American Chemistry Council states, "While plastic products provide countless health, safety, lifestyle, and sustainability benefits, those benefits cannot be fully realized unless we take swift and aggressive actions to…dramatically increase rates of reuse, recycling, and recovery."

Michael is former chemistry professor at Mount. St. Marys

Read other articles by Michael Rosenthal