BLOOMINGTON - Water experts and scientists agree Central Illinois probably has less to fear from drugs in drinking water than more urban regions of the country.

A national investigation by the Associated Press exposed how certain endocrine-disrupting chemicals and other medicines are affecting drinking water in the largest American cities. Recent studies found traces of painkillers, estrogen, antidepressants, blood-pressure medicines and other drugs in water samples from 30 states, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Reproductive changes in fish in some places have been linked to trace levels of medicines and drugs, such as birth control pills, that travel through the human body and find their way into water.

Cities like Bloomington that rely on groundwater and reservoirs like Evergreen Lake and Lake Bloomington are more at risk than towns like Normal and Champaign that rely on underground sources of water.

But Bloomington water director Craig Cummings pointed out few people live on the rural watersheds that supply his city's reservoirs. That fact limits the chance for contamination from malfunctioning septic systems or other surface sewage treatment.

"The likelihood that these compounds are present in quantities of concern is remote," he said.

Still, the federal government has yet to determine what levels may be harmful to humans.

"There are people working on understanding the toxicology of these chemicals," said Timothy Strathmann, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Researcher at the Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Some studies have shown that even at very trace levels, some can have impacts on aquatic life… It's hard to say what safe levels are."

Reaction to the investigation

In absence of federal guidelines, Illinois water authorities don't commonly test for pharmaceuticals, said IEPA communication manager Maggie Carson. The state of Illinois, in the wake of the AP report, announced last week the IEPA will expand its testing of water supplies through a partnership with the city of Chicago, focusing on its drinking water, and also offer testing to communities downstream from wastewater treatment plants.

"There appears to be a growing awareness that this is one of the things we will be looking at in the future," Carson said.

"It (drugs in drinking water) is something very much of concern," agreed Cummings. "It's new and something that wasn't really on the radar screen. We don't even know what levels may have effects on humans. We have developed the science to measure these compounds in very small amounts, (but) the science to say what levels may be of concern is not yet developed."

Federal water officials continue testing to determine what safe limits really are.

Meanwhile, current strategy is to rely on natural and manmade treatment systems already in place that likely remove most of the drugs while engineers at places like the U of I develop new technologies to better do the job. The IEPA also has embarked on increased testing and an educational program to teach safe ways to discard unused medicines rather than adding to the problem by flushing them down a toilet.

Bloomington and Normal

Steve Gerdes, the town of Normal's water director, thought the AP investigation made interesting reading. But Normal and Champaign draw water from underground sources, including the massive Mahomet Aquifer. Water is purified by filtering through soil and may lie for centuries before being drawn to the surface for use. As a result, Gerdes said he wouldn't expect to find pharmaceuticals in Normal's water.

An aquifer's relative purity is just one reason area water suppliers are proceeding on a plan to develop a water authority to drill common wells, build common treatment facilities and distribute drinking water regionwide, Cummings said.

He said Bloomington's water system starts by diluting pollutants as reservoirs flush themselves with new rainwater. In addition, the treatment process already in place combines chemicals and carbon filters that have been shown to eliminate or reduce many of the substances of concern.

"We have a very effective coagulation system which has been shown to remove some of these compounds. We also have a system for oxidizing organic compounds, using chlorine and ammonia to create chloramines, which can remove some of these compounds as well. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, we can remove a high level of organic compounds with the granular activated carbon in our filters. This treatment is highly effective in removing EDCs and other compounds," he said.

"If these compounds were present in the Bloomington source waters, we have several things in our favor," he said.

Cummings said his department also is researching new methods to treat water, from using ultraviolet light to other chemical-based approaches that address the problem.

Strathmann said the U of I is researching chemical methods, such as exposure to potassium permanganate that is used now to treat other contaminants. Scientists in Urbana also are developing next-generation drinking water technology, such as ways to use light and chemicals to convert harmful substances to nontoxic ones.

The Illinois Waste Management and Research Center, a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, recently requested research proposals to help pinpoint sources of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in water and to look at ways to reduce or prevent them from entering the environment.

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Disposing of unwanted/unused pharmaceuticals

Reducing pharmaceutical waste

- Use all antibiotics as prescribed by your doctor. Not using all doses of an antibiotic can lead to development of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

- Buy an amount that can reasonably be used before the expiration date.

- Ask your doctor to prescribe only enough to see if a new medication will work for you and in the lowest dose advisable.

Proper disposal

- Whenever possible, take your unused pharmaceuticals to a pharmaceutical collection program or event. Illinois EPA sponsors household hazardous waste collections. Scheduled collection events can be found at www.epa.state.il.us/land/hazardous-waste/household-haz-waste/hhwc-schedule.html.

- If you choose to store your waste while you wait for a pharmaceutical collection event, minimize the risk of accidental poisoning or overdose by storing medications out of reach of children or in a locked cabinet.

- If you dispose of unused pharmaceuticals in the trash, be sure to do the following:

1. Remove or mark over all labels that identify the materials as pharmaceuticals, or that could provide personal information about you, including prescription information.

2. Dissolve medications in a small amount of water or alcohol, or by grinding them up with coffee grounds or kitty litter.

3. Put them in a secondary container or small plastic bag and hide them in your trash.

4. Never burn pharmaceuticals or personal care products in a burn barrel. Uncontrolled burning can create dioxins and other toxic air pollutants.

SOURCE: IEPA