Tainted Drinking Water inTexas

Besides asbestos, we have introduced many other toxis substances into our daily lives. Read this story about drinking water in Texas...

Is There a Link Between Benzene, Leukemia and the Water in Bethany?
While we take clean water for granted, in some towns in Texas contamination of ground water is a big problem.

Since the United States is not a third world country, its citizens automatically assume that clean water is as American as apple pie…in a perfect world – maybe. That is -- unless they live in a small town in Texas called Bethany. Like what was seen in the popular movie, Erin Brockovich, water sources can become dangerously tainted and cause severe injuries to those exposed to those sources or who rely on those water sources for drinking water.

One type of problem that water can cause - and which has been the source of litigation in Texas, due to the large number of oil refineries - is Benzene. Benzene is a sweet-smelling, but highly toxic, chemical solvent derived from petroleum. Benzene is used to manufacture a wide variety of products, including gasoline. Benzene can cause cancer, and has been directly linked to leukemia (bone marrow cancer) with chronic exposure. Even short-term exposure can cause headaches, dizziness, confusion and sometimes death when benzene is breathed or ingested. For example, as reported in the New York Times, July 9, 2006, Texas Lawsuit Includes a Mix of Race and Water, for decades people in the East Texas town of DeBerry, have been unable to drink, cook or bathe safely from their own wells.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Toxics Release Inventory, releases of benzene to water and land totalled over 2 million lbs from 1987 to 1992. These releases were primarily from petroleum refining industries, with the greatest releases occurring in Texas.

With this being known by the EPA, why then did it take more than four years of persistence from residents in the Texas town Bethany, going through a bureaucratic nightmare, to have clean water to drink?The facts established by the EPA for the town of Bethany show contamination from an abandoned saltwater well injection disposal site.

What does a small town have to go through to get clean water to drink?
This case in point, involving Bethany (and DeBerry) was recently reported in the Shreveport Times on June 15, 2007 in an article entitled "Small East Texas community finally will get clean drinking water". It took years, and the determined efforts of Rev. David Hudson of the Church of the Living God near Bethany, to get clean water to drink. Recently, Rev. Hudson announced that the EPA will pay to have a main water line installed. Letters detailing complaints on the well site date back to 1996. It wasn't until 2003 that the EPA deemed groundwater along the road unsafe to drink after high levels of hazardous chemicals such as barium, mercury, and arsenic, showed up in various samplings. The EPA started providing bottled water at no charge in August 2005 and will continue to do so until clean water is flowing.

According to these news reports, Hudson and his neighbors filed their suit against Basic Energy Services, the last user of the disposal site containing the salt water well injection disposal site. The site had been shut down in early 2005. The lawsuit was settled out of court in June 2006.
Then an assessment petition was filed with the EPA, requesting the agency conduct a preliminary assessment of the groundwater contamination. A multitude of water samples taken by a number of agencies over the years from the private water wells, natural springs, and the host of monitoring wells spread across the neighborhood resulting in a laundry list of contaminants being detected.

At this point the public has to wonder how much testing do they need to determine that water is too contaminated to drink?

Finally, samples were studied by labs across the country without bias. This was important because the findings determined that the private water wells only tested positive for fecal bacteria. The natural springs and monitoring wells were contaminated with metals and radioactive materials that exceeded levels considered safe for drinking water such as benzene by-products of oil and gas production.

According to the Shreveport Times article, seven families living on County Road 329 on the Texas-Louisiana line between Bethany and DeBerry, will get immediate relief from a new water line. According to the article, the Railroad Commission of Texas, an oil regulatory agency, kept saying that the water is not contaminated. The residents feel that the RC is not doing their job and needs overseeing. Much of this is also detailed in a federal lawsuit, filed by Longview, Texas, attorney Greg Love, that alleges that the Railroad Commission violated the community’s civil rights by denying clean drinking water while having full knowledge of the violations. Several of his clients have alleged that they ingested the contaminated waste water for years and have cancer.

This waste is mostly oily saltwater used in drilling. The waste contains substances such as sludge from storage pits and tank bottoms, used glycol, amine, and hydrogen sulfide scrubber liquid. There are at least 26 acknowledged chemicals in the waste, including such known carcinogens as benzene and one category listed as – other. Oddly enough, oil and gasoline are not categorized as hazardous waste.