Water utility's arsenic concentration exceeds EPA's maximum contaminant level

LA PALOMA — Military Highway Water Supply Corp. has received a second notice that its drinking water contains unsafe levels of arsenic.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a notice Aug. 9 that a running annual average of 0.011 milligrams of arsenic per liter resulted after a sample was taken April 19. The running annual average is the average of the four most recent quarterly samples taken during a one-year period.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established the maximum contaminant level for arsenic is 0.010 milligrams per liter, the TCEQ report states.

Customers of the water utility are not in immediate danger and do not need to change drinking water sources, the report states.

Arsenic levels were 0.009 milligrams per liter in the third quarter of 2006; 0.017 in the fourth quarter of 2006; and 0.007 in the first quarter of the current year.

Although the test for the second quarter of 2007, the period of April through July, measures 0.010 milligrams of arsenic per liter — the state’s maximum contaminant level — the running annual average now stands at 0.011, which is above the allowable level, said Amado E. Salinas, general manager of the water utility.

“We’ll be collecting samples (Friday),” Salinas said. “If we get a score of 0.10, we’ll be acceptable, but the running annual average will still be too high,” he said.

The water utility has hired an engineering company that is conducting a feasibility study of alternatives Military Highway Water Supply can use to reduce the arsenic levels, Salinas said.

The study must be completed in 90 days and will then be submitted to the TCEQ, which in turn will instruct the water utility what type of technology it must use, such as reverse osmosis or blending water from other wells, Salinas said. Then the water utility will have three years to implement that technology, he said.

But Valley Interfaith, a local nonprofit group that promotes social welfare for colonias, has renewed its pledge to take legal action against the Mercedes-based utility, said the Rev. Albert Luemba, a Valley Interfaith leader and pastor of San Ignacio de Loyola Catholic Church. However, he said his group has not yet hired a lawyer to handle the case.

TCEQ spokeswoman Lisa Wheeler said her agency is monitoring the situation.

“We’re working with (the water utility),” she said, noting arsenic levels have fluctuated above and below allowable levels.

“They have hired an engineering firm to do a pilot study,” she said. “(The water utility leaders) have full intentions of taking care of this.”

TCEQ suggests in its report that Military Highway Water Supply may have to blend water from the contaminated well with water from other sources, or shut down the well altogether.

But Luemba said Valley Interfaith is not reassured by the TCEQ’s statements and has lost confidence in the water utility’s promises to take care of the arsenic problem.

“Most families (in the area along U.S. Highway 281) are using bottled drinking water,” Luemba said. “They use the tap water for their bath, to clean their clothes and things like that. But they cannot afford to buy the bottled water.”

“(The water utility leaders) are dragging their feet,” he said. “We are going to take legal action to pressure them into doing something about this. They should be providing drinking water to us now.”

Valley Interfaith has also asked the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services to conduct testing on the water, Luemba said.