By Katy Calbreath
Fifty-five households west of Lynden drink bottled water, but not because itís trendy. The water flowing through the pipes in these homes is so dangerous a federal toxic substances agency says even skin contact is unsafe.
The wells supplying these homes contain above the allowable limit of a pesticide called ethylene dibromide, or EDB, according to the EPA. As a result, two five-gallon bottles of water at the minimum are delivered weekly.
"We have been (on bottled water) for I donít know how many years," said Lillian H. Tilden, owner of a convenience store in the effected area.
However, if state and local agencies have their way, a permanent solution to the contamination problem will be announced by December 1999.
"Whether it is running a water line out there, putting in some sort of community well (and) filtering that water, (or) putting in individual filters in homes weíre still sorting out all the options," said Mary OíHerron, an environmental specialist for the Department of Ecology. "Bottled water is not probably the ultimate solution here."
Currently, supplying bottled water to these homes costs $26,730 per year and is paid for out of the Washington State Toxics Fund. The fund is supplied by a portion of taxes levied against chemical manufacturers, such as The Greak Lakes Chemical corporation, the manufacturer of EDB.
That tax money is also used to pay for programs such as the bottled water program and the Department of Ecologyís cleanup programs, according to OíHerron.
City officials in Lynden are also encouraging farmers to change some of their farming techniques in an effort to spare the area further damage, Tilden said.
Curbing pesticide use and asking dairies to build waste pools instead of letting manure piles build up are just some of the ideas being considered, she said.
The renewed promise to find a solution to northern Whatcom Countyís water problems began in earnest when the results of a study commissioned by the Department of Ecology was announced last summer.
In the report, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) announced that even skin contact with EDB-contaminated water is unsafe.
"There is some indication that dermal and inhalation exposure pathways present a Ö threat to drinking the water," OíHerron said.
EDB and other pesticides can be especially dangerous to babies and infants.
"(They) can cause a potentially fatal blood disorder in infants called ëblue baby syndrome,í" according to the Washington State Department of Health.
Wide use of EDB in Whatcom County began just after World War II. Introduced into agriculture in 1948, it was used as a pesticide to prevent worms from infesting crops, mostly strawberries, raspberries and potatoes.
For the next 35 years, it was a regularly used pesticide among farmers throughout the county and was eventually spread over 416 acres of Whatcom County farmland between 1948 and 1983, according to the Department of Agriculture.
In 1974, the National Cancer Institute announced EDB caused cancer in animals, and was a suspected cause of cancer in humans. The EPA banned the use of EDB in the U.S. in 1983.
In 1986, Richard Mayer, an environmental studies professor at Western, conducted studies on EDB contamination in the county. Mayer discovered 37% of the wells he sampled tested positive for EDB.
"I would describe (the water quality problems) as serious," he said.
According to Mayerís research, the contaminated wells will not be safe to drink from until the year 2012.
"Only 14 more years," he noted.
In November 1997, Nancy Keene, a Whatcom County resident whose child had leukemia, asked the Washington State Department of Health to catalog the amount leukemia cases in Whatcom County. The result was unusually high compared to other counties in the state, causing state and local agencies to begin a search for a cause of the problem.
"When youíre looking for possible reasons why there might be increasing cases of leukemia, you start thinking ëOkay, what are other things these people might have in common?í One of those might be the water they drink," OíHerron said.
There are two areas of heaviest contamination, according to the Department of Ecology and the EPA.
Site A, as itís called, focuses on the intersection of Bob Hall Road and Birch Bay-Lynden Road, to the west of Lynden. Site B is a two-square mile area northeast of Lynden, bordered by Pangborn, Bender, Lindsay and Clay roads, according to OíHerron.
The Washington State Department of Health is now working in conjunction with the Department of Ecology to sample wells specifically for EDB contamination. Results of this latest study are scheduled to be released in December.
While the first study, conducted over the summer, focused on measuring water contamination, the second study looked at the plausible and permanent solutions.
"Why donít we look at this area all around (Site A) and see whether, for example, if we run a water line out, if that will be the solution achieved," OíHerron said of the second study.
The final data interpretation of both studies by the Department of Ecology and ATSDRís study will be released as a combined report in February 1999.
Even when the February report is released, residents of sites A and B will keep drinking bottled water until at least December 1999. That is the date all agencies agree to have a plan by -- not the implementation date.
Meanwhile, the Whatcom County Health Department will continue to lobby citizens of both sites to make sure they stay on bottled water, or, start on it if they are not already.
Until then, residents of the contaminated areas are remarkably calm.
"(The contaminated water problem) doesnít bother me in any way," Tilden said.