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EPA to begin water sampling • SGMA gets notice from DEQ
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Posted on May 03 2000
The Division of Environmental Quality has informed the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association about the plan of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take one water sample from each private well on the island.
DEQ Director Ignacio Cabrera said the sample will be analyzed by a DEQ-certified drinking water laboratory for volatile organic chemicals. Samples will not be analyzed for any of the other contaminants that must be monitored by the water systems, DEQ said.
A team from U.S. EPA with the private contractors will carry out the tests on water wells with the assistance of DEQ staff. Private well owners can count the test to be conducted by EPA as one of the quarterly samples required by the regulation.
The other contaminants that must be sampled by public water systems are the inorganic chemicals, the synthetic organic chemicals and the radionuclides. However, EPA will analyze the water systems in Tanapag village for other contaminants.
According to Mr. Cabrera, the VOC sampling performed by U.S. EPA will save water systems $160 per sample (the cost of the VOC analysis). “Water systems are responsible for sampling and paying for the analyses of all other contaminants that must be monitored,” he said.
DEQ has emphasized the need to perform chemical monitoring on water systems because the agency has already found harmful chemicals in the limited amount of testing that has been performed on some parts of the island.
In one instance, contamination was found at a concentration greater than 60 times the CNMI drinking water standard. The health risks ranging from gastrointestinal disorders to diseases of the liver, circulatory system, reproductive system and cancer, are very real and can no longer be ignored, Mr. Cabrera said.
Only those public water systems that provide water for human consumption to 25 or more people are covered by the regulation.
The planned water testings, which is part of the CNMI regulations since 1997, require public water systems to be sampled for solvents and other man-made organic chemicals every three years. Within the three-year period ending in 2001, a water system must collect one sample every three months for four consecutive quarters.
