Feedlot water report sends somber signal
By Jennifer Colton | Argus Observer
Monday, May 21, 2007 10:41 AM PDT
Weiser — The ground water near an abandoned feedlot in Weiser was deemed to carry an elevated health risk in a study released in March by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The 41-page report issued March 19 by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry shows that nitrates, veterinary antibiotics and 17-beta estradiol, a veterinary growth hormone, were detected in the wells around the Sunnyside Feedlot area.
Both the nitrate levels — well above the federal maximum of 10 mg per liter — and the hormone presence posed an elevated health risk level, according to the report.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a division of the CDC responsible for health issues related to environmental contaminants.
Representatives from the Idaho Division of Health and the Bureau of Community and Environmental Health jointly prepared the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry report — dubbed “Health Consultation: Sunnyside Area Groundwater Contamination.”
May 8, Idaho State Public Health Toxicologist Kai Elgethun and Idaho Division of Health Program Manager Jim Vannoy presented the report during a public information meeting at the Vendome Events Center in Weiser.
“In this case, the department of human services asked us to evaluate data that they and the (Idaho) Department of Environmental Quality had been gathering to evaluate the health risk in wells around the Sunnyside Feedlot area,” Elgethun said Thursday. “The purpose of the meeting was to explain the results of the public health consultation and to answer any remaining questions.”
Since 2002, the Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality monitored groundwater through test wells at the Sunnyside Feedlot site. The report, issued in March, caps a nine-month-long study of the data collected by the ISDA and the IDEQ.
“There is a federal standard established by the Environmental Protection Agency for nitrates,” Elgethun said. “Two-thirds of the wells in the area tested higher than that. Nitrates pose a risk to infants and at those levels can cause a lack of oxygen to the brain.”
The antibiotic amounts detected were very low and not a health risk, Elgethun said, but there was conflicting evidence on the hormone tests.
“There is not a clear indication whether there is a problem or not, but there certainly is a potential for health defects,” he said. “In the last six months of testing, only one (well) remains contaminated. That’s to be expected because it (estradiol) degrades in the environment. It’s been breaking down and the levels have been decreasing.”
Officials are working specifically with the homeowner still facing the hormone contamination, Elgethun said, and around 20 households are situated within the affected area. All but nine of the homes have been tested, and Idaho Southwest District Health has offered to test the remaining wells for free, he said.
“Our recommendations were to tell people to refrain from drinking water from wells to the south or southwest of this feedlot,” Elgethun said. “We work with Southwest District Health to make sure people have access to other sources. The majority of the people are either buying water or have treatment systems under their sinks.”
Some funding for those treatment systems came from a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Conservation League against the last owner of the feedlot — Seth Matthews.
“The overall result of the meeting was that people left with their questions being answered,” Elgethun said. “I think because we’re not a regulating agency — our role is to analyze and provide education and information — that makes a big difference in how people receive our information.”
The problems in the Sunnyside area are great because the ground water table is shallow, Elgethun said, and feedlots, fertilizers and leaky septic systems could all contribute to high nitrate levels.
“The ground water is too shallow. Everything that’s on the surface gets down into the wells,” he said.
Both the ISDA and the IDEQ will continue to monitor the wells for several years, Elgethun said.
“That whole area is a nitrate priority area,” he said. “Really, it’s going to be an ongoing process even though the feedlot is gone. There is a law that basically states that areas such as this should do everything they can to control nitrates. There’s a lot of education about how people can reduce nitrate levels, change agricultural practices in area where the groundwater is shallow, such as this area. It’s no longer a feedlot problem, it’s more of a bigger area problem.”
