EWG Stokes Unfounded Fears of D.C. Tap Water

Statement from Diane VanDe Hei, Executive Director, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies:

The Environmental Working Group’s report on D.C. tap water, reported in the Washington Post today, has left D.C. residents unnecessarily fearful of the quality of tap water that comes from their faucets.  Compounding this effect is the Post’s choice to focus on the report’s misleading points.
 
Ordinarily the Washington Aqueduct disinfects with chloramines, a disinfectant that produces fewer of the byproducts that form in the process of eliminating deadly micro-organisms from the Potomac.  However, seeking to find high levels of these byproducts, EWG tested D.C. tap water at the height of the city’s annual flushing using chlorine - the most effective disinfectant for this purpose, but also one that produces more byproducts.  This is like measuring rainfall in a desert on the one day it rains and marveling at how wet the desert is.
 
Unfortunately, the Post failed to pick up on this disingenuousness in EWG’s report.   Moreover, the report does not explain that research shows that these byproducts may be harmful only over many years of drinking tap water.  Research does not indicate that temporary spikes are harmful.  The Post story did quote sources pointing this out, but the article also should have noted that D.C. residents need not be alarmed about these short-term spikes.  Indeed, the Post neglected to report on the main point of the EWG report:  that the Potomac, D.C.’s source of water, requires significant treatment because the river is polluted with harmful agricultural waste and chemicals from upstream, which is a problem that Congress has the opportunity to address now in the reauthorization of the Farm Bill.
 
The EWG report and the Post’s reporting are examples of expediency at its worst.  Instead, D.C. residents deserve accurate information to make health decisions on as they go about their busy lives.

AMWA is the definitive voice for the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the United States on regulatory, legislative and security issues, as well as a leadership resource for senior water executives.  Member-utilities collectively serve more than 127 million people with safe drinking water.