05/04/08:More Water Testing Is Sought - Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
More Water Testing Is Sought
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: D9
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The resolution passed last month by the Badger Restoration Advisory Board asks that the Army test all monitoring and private wells for a chemical called nitrotoluene. The chemical is formed when a different chemical - once used to make explosives - breaks down in the environment.
Forms of the chemical have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals when administered at high doses for long periods of time, said Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis. And the state has issued drinking water advisory levels intended to inform nearby well owners.
The Army does not test for nitrotoluene, so homeowners are unaware if their wells have any amount of the chemical.
The Army has not weighed in on the potential human health effects of the chemical. And it is unknown whether the Army would be able to test for the chemical in the low doses the state has set as advisory levels, said Joan Kenney, installation director at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant.
"If we can't detect it at extremely low levels... is there any value in doing additional testing?" Kenney said.
After water sampling near old dumping grounds revealed the chemical's presence in groundwater inside the plant in 2007, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources ordered the Army to conduct more sampling to nearby the dumping grounds to get a better idea of how the chemical might be moving.
Until those samples are complete, it wouldn't make sense to start testing for nitrotoluene at every well in and outside the plant, Kenney said.
"Obviously we'll consider all the information we can have available to us in determining the next steps," Kenney said. "But we'll wait and see what the results are of the sampling that's already scheduled and then evaluate that and share that with the (Restoration Advisory Board)."
Advisory board member Judy Ashford of Merrimac - also a Sauk County Board member - said board members thought it was important to take a "better safe than sorry" approach.
"I suppose that in the end, it's better to test than not to test," Ashford said. "But the real problem is, nobody really knows why certain things show up in some wells and disappear and then reappear somewhere else and then disappear over a period of years, because nobody really knows what the ground flow situation is."
The advisory board has no authority and the Army is not required to follow the board's recommendations.
"This is something we've been asking for for years," said Laura Olah, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger and an advisory board member. "Our concern is that there's a number of neighborhoods where low levels of (the parent chemical of nitrotoluene) have been detected in groundwater. It makes sense that nitrotoluene is also going to be present."
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: D9
Sunday, May 4, 2008
By TIM DAMOS Baraboo News Republic
An advisory board wants the Army to do more stringent well water testing in and around a former weapons manufacturing plant south of Baraboo.The resolution passed last month by the Badger Restoration Advisory Board asks that the Army test all monitoring and private wells for a chemical called nitrotoluene. The chemical is formed when a different chemical - once used to make explosives - breaks down in the environment.
Forms of the chemical have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals when administered at high doses for long periods of time, said Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis. And the state has issued drinking water advisory levels intended to inform nearby well owners.
The Army does not test for nitrotoluene, so homeowners are unaware if their wells have any amount of the chemical.
The Army has not weighed in on the potential human health effects of the chemical. And it is unknown whether the Army would be able to test for the chemical in the low doses the state has set as advisory levels, said Joan Kenney, installation director at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant.
"If we can't detect it at extremely low levels... is there any value in doing additional testing?" Kenney said.
After water sampling near old dumping grounds revealed the chemical's presence in groundwater inside the plant in 2007, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources ordered the Army to conduct more sampling to nearby the dumping grounds to get a better idea of how the chemical might be moving.
Until those samples are complete, it wouldn't make sense to start testing for nitrotoluene at every well in and outside the plant, Kenney said.
"Obviously we'll consider all the information we can have available to us in determining the next steps," Kenney said. "But we'll wait and see what the results are of the sampling that's already scheduled and then evaluate that and share that with the (Restoration Advisory Board)."
Advisory board member Judy Ashford of Merrimac - also a Sauk County Board member - said board members thought it was important to take a "better safe than sorry" approach.
"I suppose that in the end, it's better to test than not to test," Ashford said. "But the real problem is, nobody really knows why certain things show up in some wells and disappear and then reappear somewhere else and then disappear over a period of years, because nobody really knows what the ground flow situation is."
The advisory board has no authority and the Army is not required to follow the board's recommendations.
"This is something we've been asking for for years," said Laura Olah, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger and an advisory board member. "Our concern is that there's a number of neighborhoods where low levels of (the parent chemical of nitrotoluene) have been detected in groundwater. It makes sense that nitrotoluene is also going to be present."
Submitted by wnpj on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 2:43pm.