BOSSIER WATER- Don’t Breathe The Water! That’s the advice of a water expert who met with concerned Bossier City, Louisiana residents last night during a meeting about Bossier’s drinking water system that’s undergoing a “60 Day-Chlorine Burn” treatment after it tested positive for a brain-eating amoeba in early October. The amoeba was detected in samples taken from testing sites in South Bossier Subdivisions. State and city officials have said the 60-day treatment is safe. But residents in the affected areas have expressed concerns citing strong chlorine-like odors present in the water. The concern has been so great that it got the attention of environmental activist Erin Brockovich who sent out her top water expert Bob Bowcock who met with concerned Bossier Residents last night. He says that while Bossier City has a very good water system, using a 60 day chlorine-burn does pose some health risks, especially to pregnant women.
Bowcock said "The drinking water, they're not cleaning the dirt out which is why the community's disinfectant of choice is chloramine. Chloramine is the addition of ammonia to chlorine in order to sequester chemical reactions that form disinfectant byproducts. When they take the ammonia out of the water and still fail to remove the dirt from the drinking water, they're going to form very high levels of disinfectant byproducts."
Bowcock says the issue centers on federal and state safe drinking water regulations and says they are not addressing other ways people could be exposed to harmful substances while bathing or breathing water vapors released by hot water.
"When the regulation was written in the late 80's and adopted in 1996, most of the studies were based on the drinking of water. Go figure - the drinking water rule has to do with drinking water, it didn't take into account the inhalation in a warm shower.,"Bowcock explains. "It is assumed that a woman could actually get into a hot shower and actually inhale more of this chemical than she could drink in an entrie month. And so the reason that it concerns me - and the reason I keep saying 'a woman' - because they've attributed the exposure to these chemicals that are regulated for drinking to increase in miscarriage in the first trimester, a 90-day period of pregnancy and low birth weight in the second and third trimester. That is our primary concern. The fact that community drinking water systems come out and make the immediate declaration that 'our water is perfectly safe - meets or exceeds all federal and state safe drinking water requirements ', says absolutely nothing. The regulations are outdated and are not serving the consumer properly."
Bowcock says the city’s newer $80 Million dollar water plant has the capability to remove the amoeba without using a “Chlorine Burn” and also added he will offer his free report to state and local officials and will talk with anyone involved with the Bossier City Water System who’s interested. The Bossier Water System’s “60 day chlorine burn” began the second week in October and is half-way from being complete.
For more information: Erin Brockovich Foundation
