LI Drinking Water Experts Question State Regulations On Chemicals

LONG ISLAND, NY—Last month Gov. Cuomo declared New York State would enact some of the toughest drinking water regulations to date. The new standard concerns several substances that are widely considered carcinogenic: 1,4-dioxane, PFOA and PFOS. The chemical 1,4-dioxane is used as a stabilizer in different industrial products and may be cancer-causing. The New York threshold is the strictet in the nation, at a maximum of 1 part per billion.

But Long Island water experts question the feasibility and cost of the mandate. Several water district superintendents told Newsday that the cost may prove prohibitive, or at least lead to higher consumer costs. Those in the water filtration business also question the new technology, called advanced oxidative process (AOP) which was first approved to treat a well in the Suffolk County Water Authority in 2018 and will be used to remove the carcinogen from the aquifer supplied water supplies across Long Island.

Anthony Pascarella owns Pure Home H20, an in-home water filtration company based in Rocky Point. He told Patch that 1,4-dioxane is one of the leading risks in Long Island drinking water but that he doesn't know of the municipal system can fully address the risk.

"The EPA has established that 1,4-dioxane is likely to be carcinogenic to humans. Too many toxins in our bodies leads to disease and disabilities.[But] the AOP system they are using is not fully effective and because the money it will cost."

"They are talking about $350 million per year for six years to address one contaminant. There are so many more other contaminants plus an infrastructure over 100 years old that is falling apart underground."

Frank Piccininni of Save the Great South Bay environmental advocacy group says the problem with the current plan is that the state hasn't studied alternate sources of clean water.

"If you spend the money it will solve the issue that's great but the treatment technology doesn't treat a broad swath of chemicals, and then when the next chemical has to be addressed you have to do it all again."

Right now well-head treatment is the only treatment available, Piccininni points out.

"Before we spend a billion dollars you can spend a fraction of money on studying alternate sources of water. There is research that extra city water that's being dumped could be piped to us safely."

Pascaralla says many of his customers come to him after dealing with autoimmune disorders or cancer which spark their concern over the drinking water that comes out of their taps. And he says that even reducing the thresholds for 1,4-dioxane is only one piece of the safe drinking water puzzle.

"The smell is also a concern—what they think is a chlorine smell is actually the chlorine byproducts which are very bad for us. Iron or brown water is becoming more of a concern as well. Showering in chlorinated water alone every day has been proven to be a serious health concern. Nitrates and iron are just two things that we are up against that are only getting worse."