Editor's Note: Welcome to a new feature on the Windy Citizen - The Chicago Explainer. Each week we will pick a story you posted to the site and dig into a question the original piece didn't address and post it to the site blog. Heading this up is our new editorial intern, Len Kody, who you might have seen commenting last week. He'll be penning an Explainer each week for the next few months and helping to keep our discussion threads interesting. Welcome him and enjoy his first piece here.
Original Post: "Is your drinking water contaminated?" submitted by user jkaufman
Residents of southwest suburban Crestwood recently learned that from 1986 to 2007 their municipal tap water had been tainted with toxic chemicals. Village officials had long claimed they bought their municipal water through the City of Chicago’s Lake Michigan intake cribs., but they were actually supplementing that supply with water from a local well state regulators deemed contaminated 22 years ago. One of the chemicals found in Crestwood's well, vinyl chloride, is so toxic that the U.S. EPA says there is no safe level of exposure. How can you make sure your drinking water is safe?
Test your tap water with a home test kit. You have options. There are a number of models available at drug stores or over the Internet.
For a general solution, Watersafe All-In-One might be the ticket. With this $20 kit you can test for common contaminants like lead, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, pH level, hardness, iron, and bacteria. To use the Watersafe kit you dip one of the testing strips into a sample of drinking water collected and wait a few minutes to see how the color changes. To test for bacteria you add a special powder to your sample and set it aside for 24 hours. Even a general test like this one might have caught the carcinogenic chemicals in Crestwood’s water.
There are also tests that look for specific containimants. Watersafe makes a $10 lead test kit and PurTest has a bacteria and nitrate test kit.
And there are options for people who want to go all out, like the $40 SenSafe Water Quality test kit which looks for sufate, copper, and alkalinity in addition to the chemicals tested for in the Watersafe kit.
It’s worth noting that while these kits will test for a wide variety of contaminants, there are substances thought to be seeping into water supplies that have only just recently become detectable due to advancements in technology. These include prescription and over-the-counter drugs as well as chemicals from personal-care products, food packaging, clothing and household goods. It is currently not clear what the effects of long term exposure to these chemicals might be. And testing for them is not practical for the average citizen because it can only be done in a laboratory.
Once you’ve tested your water, if you turn up anything unusual, don’t forget to notify your authorities. The people of Crestwood would possibly still be drinking contaminated water were it not for one particularly persistent and outspoken mother. One of her children had leukemia at a young age and her personal investigation is credited with prompting state officials to investigate.
You can also learn more about where your water comes from. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Source Water Protection Program (SWAP) posts fact sheets online where you can search for your area by county and community to find out where your water comes from and get a general rundown of its overall safety.
Additionally, all cities and towns in Illinois of at least 25 year round residents are required by the state EPA to produce a “Consumer Confidence Report” on its drinking water. As of March 15th, 2009, the Illinois EPA has provided access to these reports online through their “Drinking Water Watch” website.
Got a Chicago question that's vexing you? Ask the Chicago Explainer here on the Windy Citizen at editor@windycitizen.com
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Len Kody
South Sider. Comics Writer. Daily Daley Contributor. Editorial Intern. More
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