Proposed arsenic limit would cost hundreds of thousands for LV

A water official estimates it will cost "several hundred thousand dollars" to bring the Las Vegas Valley into line if a new limit on arsenic in drinking water proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency is approved.

The EPA proposed on Wednesday to reduce the limit to one-tenth of the current standard, reducing cancer risks for 22 million Americans.

The agency proposed to reduce the arsenic from 50 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. The EPA announced its proposal two weeks after an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed a federal lawsuit to force the White House to allow the release of the proposal.

High levels of arsenic are found in drinking water drawn from wells across the West, particularly Nevada. The EPA estimates 6,600 water systems nationwide serving at least 22.5 million people would need to enhance their systems to meet the standard.

For the Southern Nevada Water Authority to improve its treatment plant it will cost several hundred thousand dollars to enhance the existing process, water authority spokesman Vince Alberta said. If the water authority needed a new treatment system, "it would certainly be more than that," he said.

Most water tests did not detect arsenic, Alberta said. During 1999 the Las Vegas drinking supply averaged 3 parts per billion of arsenic with one reading at 8 parts per billion. In 1993 there was one reading of 7 parts per billion at the plant, he said.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District operates about 70 wells in the valley, and in 1998 seven were at the current limit for arsenic, 5 parts per billion, or above, Alberta said. The highest reading was 9 parts per billion in three of the wells. None exceeded the current standard.

"We will comply with any new standard to protect Southern Nevada residents and we currently meet all existing standards," Alberta said.

The water district also reported two wells in Jean at 6 parts per billion and one at 5 parts per billion in 1998, Alberta said. At Stateline one well contained 10 parts per billion and another 9 parts per billion that same year.

If the EPA standard is approved, more testing of the area's wells will be done before a solution is chosen, Alberta said.

A higher standard would force water systems serving 10,000 people or more to meet the limit in three years. However, about 95 percent of the systems failing to meet the 5 parts per billion limit are smaller.

The EPA has a revolving loan fund that provides roughly $1 billion a year in low-interest loans to improve water systems.

Arsenic is a metal found naturally in the Earth's crust and in ores of copper, lead and zinc.

Studies on miners have shown that exposure to arsenic can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, headache, dizziness, memory loss, convulsions, paralysis and heart irregularities. Inhaling arsenic dust can cause breathing difficulties. Long-term exposure to arsenic can cause cancers of the lungs, liver, skin and perhaps other organs, according to EPA fact sheets.

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