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299591
A investigation of low level chemical contamination of drinking water at an elementary school by a local public health authorities: Assessing the unexpected!
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Paul A. Biedrzycki, MPH, MBA
,
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee, WI
Lindor Schmidt, BS, RS
,
Disease Control & Environmental Health Division, City of Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee, WI
Kyle McFatridge, BS
,
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee, WI
Terri Linder, BS, RS
,
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee, WI
During September 2013, Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) was alerted to several citizen complaints of petroleum-like odors and turbid water emanating from drinking water fountains and faucets in an elementary school located in the City of Milwaukee. MHD environmental staff along with employees from the municipal water utility validated the complaints through sampling and testing of the drinking water at numerous sites in the school. Threshold Odor Number (T.O.N.) analysis from the Milwaukee Health Department Laboratory and Milwaukee Water Works Laboratory revealed detectable petroleum levels ranging from 1-4 T.O.N. The turbidity in water samples approached 6.79 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs) with the presence of low levels of 1,4 dichlorobenzene (p-DCB) up to concentrations of 4.6 µg/L and xylene concentrations of up to 0.51 µg/L. Extensive inspection of the school did not identify any obvious sources of contamination or cross contamination through the building or outside water distribution system including potential depressurization and backflow associated with coincidental street/sewer repair in the near vicinity. The MHD consulted with State of Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH) environmental and toxicology program staff to assess risk to students, employees and visitors to the school. In addition, notification messaging was crafted by MHD and relayed to school officials. Risk assessment by DPH and MHD revealed no imminent threat to occupants of the school as related to drinking water contaminants. Further investigation and testing at the school validated the MHD hypothesis of an airborne pathway for p-DCB contamination of drinking water samples likely from wall-mounted deodorizer products used at the school. No plausible sources of petroleum-like products or xylenes were ultimately identified and xylene did not reappear in subsequent water samples collected by the MHD. This investigation revealed a potential source of airborne chemical contamination confounders to water quality in schools. Furthermore, the scope and nature of such environmental findings in institutional and other public settings warrants further investigation and research.
Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related education
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Learning Objectives:
Describe the Milwaukee Health Department investigative protocol for drinking water complaints received from the community
Explain the strategy used at the school associated with drinking water sample collection and analysis by the Milwaukee Health Department
Define the criteria used by the Milwaukee Health Department to assess occupant risk to suspected low level chemical contamination of drinking water at the elementary school
Explain the Milwaukee Health Department hypothesis regarding p-DCB contamination of samples collected at the school
Keyword(s): Environmental Health, Child Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 1984. I am also a Registered Sanitarian in the State of Wisconsin. I have worked in the Disease Control and Environmental Health division of the Milwaukee Health Department for two plus years. I was one of the investigators in the incident, visiting the school four times for sample collection and investigation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
