Where Does Arsenic Come From?

 

Most arsenic enters water supplies either from natural deposits in the earth or from industrial and agricultural pollution. Arsenic is a natural element of the earth’s crust. It is used in industry and agriculture, and for other purposes. It also is a byproduct of copper smelting, mining and coal burning. U.S. industries release thousands of pounds of arsenic into the environment every year.

The map above from the US Geological Survey shows where arsenic is most prevalent in ground water.

The EPA now considers arsenic a serious threat in concentrations as low as 10 parts per billion. The chart below shows the cancer risk assumption for drinking water with arsenic.

Arsenic Level in Tap Water (in parts per billion, or ppb)	Approximate Total Cancer Risk (assuming 2 liters consumed/day)
0.5 ppb	1 in 10,000
1 ppb	1 in 5,000
3 ppb	1 in 1,667
4 ppb	1 in 1,250
5 ppb	1 in 1,000
10 ppb	1 in 500
20 ppb	1 in 250
25 ppb	1 in 200
50 ppb	1 in 100

Arsenic is most easily removed from drinking water with distillers, reverse osmosis, specialized filters, or anion exchange. Even common carbon filtration can remove a significant percentage of arsenic.   More details about arsenic removal.

Arsenic, it should be noted, is not entirely a water issue.  A great deal of arsenic is present in foods and in common products like  wood preservatives.

 Environmental Groups Are Suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Failure to Protect Florida’s Caloosahatchee River

Several environmental organizations– Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest

Florida–have joined Earthjustice to file suit in federal court against the US Army Corps of Engineers alleging that the Corps has violated water protection laws regarding Florida’s Caloosahatchee River.

The Caloosahatchee, officially designated as a public drinking water source, has been covered with slimy green algae outbreaks in eight of the past 11 years, and an outbreak slimed the river in late July 2012.  According to Earthjustice, the algae releases a nauseating smell, gives people respiratory problems, causes massive fish kills and harms many wild species.

Cities drawing drinking water from the Caloosahatchee have also had to quit using the water because it is unsafe to drink in spite of extensive treatment.

The suit is filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because it has allegedly caused the Caloosahatchee’s problems by cutting off the river’s water supply. The Corps operates three water control structures that regulate the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee estuary at the Gulf of Mexico. According to Earthjustice, instead of providing the Caloosahatchee with the flow it needs to stay healthy, the Corps diverts water to irrigate 500,000 acres of sugar cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee, leaving the river stagnant and polluted.

The river has a nasty stench  in downtown Fort Myers, and many dead fish have washed up on the beaches in front of condos and hotels in Naples.

More Details about the Caloosahatchee Lawsuit.