The Environmental Protection Agency is strengthening research on pharmaceuticals and other contaminants in water to determine their potential risks to public health and assess whether regulation is needed, an agency official told a House subcommittee Sept. 18.

"There is critical work to be done in the area of research and assessment before we can make any decisions as to whether regulatory actions are needed," EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin Grumbles told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

As part of the study effort, Grumbles said EPA expects to release a preliminary report in December on work conducted at nine publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities to better understand what is going into a plant for treatment and what is being discharged.

As another part of this work, EPA has conducted a pilot study, which is now under review, that investigated whether pharmaceuticals and other personal care products may occur in fish.

Later this fall, he said, EPA expects to complete a targeted national sewage sludge survey of biosolids from 74 randomly selected wastewater treatment plants.

In addition, Grumbles said, researchers at the University of Florida and Duke University, funded by EPA grants, are assessing the occurrence of contaminants of concern in wastewater and biosolids. Duke University is evaluating the results of its study at four publicly owned treatment works. The University of Florida's grant to evaluate biosolids was recently extended to 2010.

He also said the comment period closes Nov. 10 on an information collection request seeking input on factors driving current unused pharmaceutical disposal practices and on the amount and types of unused pharmaceuticals currently flushed down the drain, as well as alternatives to this practice.
Moreover, EPA is evaluating the potential impact of contaminants of concern, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products that exhibit endocrine disrupting activity, Grumbles said.

Subcommittee Chairman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) expressed concern over growing reports of toxic chemicals and their by-products in U.S. waters. For example, she said, there are currently 80,000 chemicals in use--a threefold increase from 1941 to 1995--8,000 of which are known carcinogens.

However, fewer than 300 of these chemicals have discharge permit limits, she said.

Johnson criticized EPA for not developing a screening program to determine if certain chemicals and compounds disrupt hormones in humans, as required by the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
"In the 12 years since this mandate was put forward, the agency has not begun to test any chemicals under this program, despite the potential for these chemicals and compounds to cause great harm to individuals--especially children and pregnant women," she said.

In April, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) charged that the EPA has failed to protect the public from potentially dangerous exposures to pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

EPA has failed to require needed testing to determine the effects of these chemicals at low levels, Boxer said at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality (73 DEN A-12, 4/16/08)

In 1996, the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended to require that EPA maintain a national drinking water contaminant database.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) said she introduced legislation (H.R. 6820) Aug. 1 that would require EPA to conduct a study on the presence and source of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the nation's drinking water.

Although her bill was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over safe drinking water, McCarthy said, it is important to look at all waters, including source water, to see where the problem begins.

She pointed to a March report by the Associated Press that found pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million Americans. A follow-up report published the week of Sept. 8 found the number of Americans affected by contaminated water to be approximately 46 million people, she said.

"This is a public health issue, and we must act before the presence of pharmaceuticals reaches crisis levels," McCarthy said.

Matthew Larsen, associate director for water at the U.S. Geological Survey, said the chemicals currently of greatest interest include those that enter the environment through human and animal wastes.
USGS has been conducting research on emerging contaminants.

"Many of these chemicals are a new focus for environmental research because they are used in relatively small quantities and, therefore, were not expected to be of significant environmental concern," Larsen said.
Endocrine disruption is one adverse health effect of concern, Larsen said, because it may occur as a result of exposure to very low levels of hormonally active chemicals.

Keith Linn, environmental specialist with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District--representing the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA)--said use of pharmaceutical and personal care products is expanding, which means many more are ending up in the environment.

He urged the subcommittee to ensure that any approach to address emerging contaminants be rooted in sound science and not be dictated by public anxiety.

Federal guidelines continue to advise that certain prescription drugs be flushed into the sewer system, Linn said. Unfortunately, he said, at the same time, EPA and other federal and state regulatory agencies are conducting efforts that may ultimately require publicly owned treatment works to install additional equipment or remove these same drugs from their wastewater effluent.

"Clearly, preventing illicit drug use must be a national priority, but NACWA feels strongly that there are better ways of managing prescription drugs without resorting to disposal in the sewer system," Linn said. "Instead, sustainable approaches such as ongoing collection of unused drugs need to be explored."

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) criticized witnesses at the hearing for being "very long on generalities but short on specifics."

"Unless you can identify a specific problem and a specific solution, I don't think anything comes of this hearing," he said.

For example, Taylor said, a more practical approach would be to raise public awareness of a problem connected with the disposal of a particular drug. 


By Linda Roeder