Decision nearing on water treatment

With new federal and state environmental rules due in two years that will set tougher limits on the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, the town of Seabrook is under pressure to clean up its water.

Seabrook taxpayers on Tuesday will debate a proposed $2.6 million bond issue to build a treatment plant to remove arsenic from the town's water. The discussion will take place at the deliberative session of the Town Meeting at 7 p.m. at the Seabrook Recreation Center. Voters will have the final say on the issue at the March 9 Town Meeting.

If the bond is approved by a three-fifths vote, Seabrook's new water treatment plant will be operating by the end of 2005, in time to meet new federal requirements going into effect in January 2006.

The new plant would be built next to Seabrook's largest bedrock well, where the arsenic level has been found to be twice the new standard for drinking water, according to local officials.

The plant also will remove manganese, iron, and radon from the water.

''The largest well is up to 22 to 26 parts per billion, more than double the new standard," said Warner Knowles, the Seabrook water and sewer superintendent. ''And we are told it is probably the largest production well in the state that is over the new arsenic limit."

''Seabrook is the biggest public water system in New Hampshire facing this problem," said Bernie Lucey, a senior engineer for the state Department of Environmental Services. ''Probably one or two million gallons a day are produced by that system."

But the town is not alone in facing an arsenic cleanup deadline. ''In New Hampshire, 130 or 140 towns, including Seabrook, need to do something in the next two years," Lucey said.

He also said arsenic in drinking water is a ''New Englandwide problem."

''Most signs indicate that it is naturally occuring in the bedrock throughout the northern portion of New England and way into Massachusetts," Lucey said. ''Anybody with a bedrock well can have the same problem. . . . Arsenic has no taste or color or odor, so there's no way to tell if there's excess arsenic in your water unless you have it tested."

The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified arsenic as a carcinogen, according to state environmental officials. Long-term exposure to arsenic is linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, immunological disorders, diabetes, and other medical issues.

The federal government currently permits arsenic levels in public drinking water of 0.05 milligrams per liter -- or 50 parts per billion, Lucey said.

But new limits, set into motion during the Clinton administration, will take effect Jan. 24, 2006, and state law parallels that, Lucey said.

The new standards will drop permitted arsenic levels to one-fifth of current levels, allowing 0.010 milligrams per liter, or 10 parts per billion, he said.

Across New Hampshire, 1,125 water systems serving schools, workplaces, and homes will have to meet the new standards.

''Of that group, 10 have that treatment in place and another 130 to 140 will have to do something to develop new wells without arsenic, consolidate with another water system [that does not have elevated arsenic levels in its water] or build a water treatment plant as Seabrook wants to do," Lucey said.

A federally funded arsenic treatment demonstration project began last week in Rollinsford. Next winter, another project will start treating water in a small condo development in Goffstown.

Meanwhile, with no major streams, lakes or ponds to get water from, Seabrook has ''no real alternatives" to treating its groundwater, according to Earth Tech, a Portland, Maine, environmental consulting firm working with Seabrook.

The town pumps drinking water for about 8,500 residents via 50 miles of pipe. It is pumped from five deep-rock wells and five gravel-packed wells.

All five bedrock wells in Seabrook have tested positive for arsenic, according to Earth Tech.

But Earth Tech project manager Paul Cote said the arsenic in Seabrook's water is further diluted before townspeople drink it.

''Bedrock well number 5 has 23 parts per billion," Cote said. ''The other four wells have about 11, 12, and 13 parts per billion, just barely above 10, which will be the standard in 2006. But the water is blended. It gets mixed up in the distribution system, which cuts the amounts of arsenic down. . . . Near Town Hall, the levels of arsenic are around 10 parts per billion. So we shouldn't have people jumping out of their windows thinking the water is not safe."