How Safe Is Our Lake Whatcom Drinking Water?

April Markiewicz is an environmental toxicologist and the assistant director of the Institute of Environmental Toxicology in Huxley College at Western Washington Univerity. She’s also an advocate for the protection of Lake Whatcom and is the president of People for Lake Whatcom.

Since 1999 the city of Bellingham has published Pure Facts, a Consumer Confidence Report about the status of our treated drinking water — where it comes from, how it is purified, what is in it and how we can help protect it. Each year the report is mailed to all households serviced by the city, in part to keep us informed about our drinking water quality, as well as to comply with federal regulations requiring each public water utility to provide such reports annually. The reports are excellent sources of information about our drinking water quality over time, as well as an insightful, though unintended record of drinking water related issues that have come up in our community during that time.

In reviewing Pure Facts publications from 1999 to the present (for calendar years 1998 to 2005), we can rest assured as a community that our treated drinking water continues to be good-quality, meeting or exceeding all federal and state standards for purity. Moreover, as recently as April of this year, it won a taste-test award for “best in the Northwest” (Pure Facts, 2006). The key reason our drinking water meets all these standards and wins awards is because Lake Whatcom, our drinking water source, has historically provided good quality water that required very little treatment. As Lake Whatcom water quality has increasingly degraded in the last five years, the ability of our water treatment plant to filter and remove pollutants has exceeded capacity (Pure Facts, 2006). As of 2004, the city has found itself unable to meet its internal standards for drinking water quality, especially during the summer months, and unable to keep up with demand (City of Bellingham, 2004).

Current treatment of the raw water consists of piping water from Basin 2 of Lake Whatcom to the screen house located in Whatcom Falls Park where large debris (including twigs and fish) are removed. The water is then routed to the water treatment plant nearby where alum and other chemicals are added to help the smaller microscopic particles clump together and be removed during final filtration through filters of anthracite coal, silica sand, garnet, course sand and gravel. It is then piped to the 14 million gallon reservoir where it is chlorinated and the pH adjusted with soda ash to make it less acidic before final distribution to our homes (Pure Facts, 1999).

Throughout the treatment process and as the water moves into the city’s distribution system, the water quality is continuously tested for more than 250 substances regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most of these substances are not present or are below analytical detection limits; however, those substances that are detected must be reported even when levels are low and in compliance with federal and state regulations. In 1998 the following substances were detected in the treated water and reported: disinfection by-products (total trihalomethanes or THMs), turbidity, asbestos, total coliform bacteria, lead, and copper (see Water Quality Monitoring Results on page 14) (Pure Facts, 1999). As of 2005 the substances detected were almost unchanged: disinfection by-products, turbidity, total and fecal coliform bacteria, chlorine, inorganics (sodium, nitrate and sulfate), lead and copper (Pure Facts, 2006). It is interesting to note that when compared over the last seven years, concentrations of most of these substances have remained the same or decreased over time (see Water Quality Monitoring Results on page 14).

One of the ongoing subjects addressed in every issue of Pure Facts is why the tap water sometimes tastes and/or smells of chlorine. This problem is directly related to the increased water quality degradation in Lake Whatcom. As more nutrients, soil particles and organic matter have entered the lake from urban development in the watershed, productivity and particle loading in the raw water has increased so much that the treatment plant is unable to remove them. During chlorination the particles react with the chlorine to create trihalomethanes (THMs), a known carcinogen. Although the total THM levels in our drinking water are in compliance with federal and state regulations, they have been gradually increasing in concentration as particle loading has increased (Matthews et al, 2006). It is the THMs that cause the increase in chlorine odor and taste in the water, not the chlorine (Pure Facts, 1999). The problem is usually most noticeable in the spring and fall when nutrients and algal growth are most abundant. As Lake Whatcom water quality continues to degrade from continued inputs of phosphorus and particles from the surrounding watershed, this problem will only become more prevalent until our tap water will taste and smell of chlorine all the time.

Sometimes events in our community have generated topics covered in Pure Facts. In 1999 the June 10 gasoline leak into Whatcom Creek and subsequent explosion immediately generated concerns that our drinking water source could have been contaminated. The city began collecting samples throughout the lake and at the intake pipe to analyze for gasoline and gasoline components, i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Detectable levels of gasoline hydrocarbons were found both in the lake and our tap water, though well below maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) established by EPA (Pure Facts, 1999; Pure Facts, 2001).

Surprisingly, as the city continued its monitoring efforts in the following months and into the next year, it continued to detect gasoline, including BTEX hydrocarbon components at the intake pipe, located at a depth of more than 42 feet. This indicated that some source or sources of gasoline were entering the lake, especially during the summer months and being widely distributed throughout the upper water column of the lake (Pure Facts, 2001). In also monitoring the treated water, the city soon realized that gasoline components, including benzene, a known carcinogen, were virtually unaffected during the treatment process, and are showing up in low concentrations in our tap water. Within the year the city had identified “boating activity may be the most likely contributor” of gasoline to the lake, though some contributions from leaking fuel tanks and runoff from roads were also recognized as other potential sources (Pure Facts, 2000; Pure Facts, 2001).

One positive outcome of this event and subsequent monitoring efforts that continued through 2005 was that within a few years both the city and county implemented a ban on the use of the most polluting types of two-cycle motorized watercraft on Lake Whatcom. The ban took effect in January of this year; however, the community will probably never know if the ban was successful in decreasing gasoline levels in our lake water. Due to high analytical costs the city has decided that beginning this year it will no longer monitor the raw and treated water for gasoline or BTEX components (Peg Wendling personal communication, 2006).

Microscopic organisms such as Cryptosporidium and E. coli bacteria in other drinking water supplies during the mid to late 1990s caused the city to address these topics in Pure Facts as well. The parasite Cryptosporidium and E. coli bacteria are both associated with human and animal wastes. As watersheds are cleared of forests and urbanized, these microorganisms are more likely to be present and carried by runoff into surface waters. Lake Whatcom is no exception. Low levels of Cryptosporidium have been detected in Lake Whatcom in recent years and high levels of E. coli in the lake continue to frequently close the public beach to swimmers at Bloedel-Donovan Park each summer. So far the city has detected no Cryptosporidium and only very low levels of E. coli (well within the maximum contaminant level) in our treated drinking water. As development continues in the watershed, however the potential for higher concentrations of these pathogens to enter the lake and our treated drinking water supply will only increase.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, in 2004 state officials declared a drought emergency for Washington state. The potential impacts to Lake Whatcom (or any surface waters used as source water for drinking) were enough to have the city include this topic in the 2005 and 2006 issues of Pure Facts. Several pages are devoted to educating the public about the drought conditions and mechanisms to reduce water usage around the home, especially watering lawns, which is responsible for the highest consumption of water in our community in the summer. Joining the voluntary metering program will also help to reduce water consumption, as well as save money on water bills (Pure Facts, 2005; Pure Facts, 2006).

Lake Whatcom obtains almost 75 percent of its water from surface and groundwater runoff, 15 percent from precipitation (rain, snow), and 10 percent from the diversion dam on the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River (Matthews et al., 2006; Pure Facts, 2005). Though there is still plenty of water in the lake, continued development in the watershed will remove water-retentive forests and vegetation, increasing exposed soils and impervious surfaces that will impact the tributaries and groundwater inputs into the lake. Should warming trends and development in the watershed continue, coupled with reduced snowpacks and retreating glaciers, conserving water may become common practice in our community.

In the 1999 Pure Facts, the city makes first mention of source water protection using a “multiple barrier” approach in recognition that treatment systems are subject to failures and cannot fully protect human health. The 1993 contamination of drinking water in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Cryptosporidium that sickened more than 400,000 people and resulted in more than 100 deaths is a tragic example of a community that relied on water treatment as its only defense.

Subsequent issues of Pure Facts have built on this concept to educate and inform residents about the effects of pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer use in the watershed, impacts from traffic, logging, construction, roads and other activities that disturb the land or create impervious surfaces, contaminants in stormwater runoff, and treatments being implemented to remove those contaminants. The city has also increased its outreach to watershed residents, informing them of stewardship programs, the benefits of conservation easements, land preservation, transfer of development rights, and the land acquisition program to protect the watershed from future development. By advocating a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to watershed and source water protection, the city hopes to provide the greatest protection to our drinking water and public health.

So, based on the data, improvements at the treatment plant, compliance with federal and state regulations for water quality purity, and awards received, are there reasons to be concerned about our treated drinking water? According to the 2006 issue of Pure Facts, the city’s water treatment plant is continuing to do “an excellent job of producing some of the best drinking water in the state.” The cost of producing that quality of water, however, is becoming more and more expensive as Lake Whatcom’s water becomes increasingly polluted.

The city cautions that it will soon need to upgrade the water treatment plant to remove the higher amounts, as well as treat the different, more diverse kinds of pollutants that are being detected in the raw (untreated) Lake Whatcom water. These upgrades will include the transition from using chlorine to disinfect our treated water to using UV radiation, which does not leave harmful by-products in our drinking water. A basic upgrade to the water treatment facility and processes was estimated to cost $9 million dollars in 2004. The second option to upgrade to a membrane filtration system capable of a higher level of treatment (removing more contaminants) was estimated in 2004 to cost $36 million (City of Bellingham, 2004).

Protecting our source water will require all of us to participate in limiting the use of chemicals on our property, prevent contaminants from leaving our property, use native plants in landscaping, remove bulkheads and piers, conserve water use whenever possible, and consider leaving a legacy for all to appreciate by donating land as a conservation easement or participating in the Lake Whatcom Land Acquisition Program. Most of all, we need to stay informed about the status of our community’s drinking water and reading Pure Facts is one way to do so. It can be crucial to our continued good health. The most recent issue of Pure Facts can be obtained online at http://www.cob.org/documents/pw/utilities/2005-water-consumer-confidence-report.pdf. §

•City of Bellingham. 2004. “Source Water and Treatment Trends” by Peg Wendling. http://www.cob.org/documents/pw/utilities/COB-Source-Water-Treatment-Trends.pdf.

•“A Summary of Findings from Lake Whatcom Monitoring and from Drinking Water Treatment.” City of Bellingham Public Works Department, Bellingham, WA.

•Matthews, R.A., M. Hilles, J. Vandersypen, R.J. Mitchell, and G.B. Matthews. 2006. Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project 2004/2005 Final Report. Prepared for the city of Bellingham, Bellingham, WA. March 30, 2006. 465 pages.

•Pure Facts Consumer Confidence Reports: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. City of Bellingham Public Works Department, Bellingham, WA.