Going Coastal

New York City’s vast drinking water supply system provides 1.1 billion gallons a day of water containing minute amounts of pain relievers and other medications. The city does not test for the presence of such drugs, and members of the City Council want to know why.

At a public hearing on Thursday before the Council’s environment committee, federal officials testified that tests done by the United States Geologic Survey indicate that city water contains a range of pharmaceutical compounds, but in concentrations so low that they pose no known health risk and do not require regular monitoring.

But Councilman James F. Gennaro, chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection, said that because studies have shown that even trace amounts of the drugs are linked to mutations in fish, and the potential impact of long-term exposure on humans is unknown, the city’s water should be tested regularly for pharmaceuticals.

After a recently published report about the presence of medicines in drinking water, several cities, including Dallas and Austin, Tex., began rigorously testing their drinking water. Some systems, including Philadelphia’s, have already been testing for pharmaceuticals.

“The fact of the matter is that other water systems, like Philadelphia, took it upon themselves to begin a testing protocol of some kind to jump on this issue,” Mr. Gennaro said. “We can’t wait for the federal government to act.”

In an investigation last month, The Associated Press reported that tests showed tiny amounts of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water of 24 metropolitan areas, and in the watersheds of 28, including New York City’s.

After being notified of the results, 22 of the 28 metropolitan areas began testing. Besides New York, the others that did not initiate testing were Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County, Md.; Omaha; Oklahoma City; and Santa Clara, Calif.

Scientists have known for a decade or so that low concentrations of antibiotics, heart medications and other drugs regularly find their way into drinking water supplies. But to date there has not been any proof that constant low-level exposure to the medications represents a health risk.

Paul Rush, deputy commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the water system, said at Thursday’s hearing that the city’s water is safe and that the amount of pharmaceutical compounds detected is so small they could not even be detected until advanced technology was developed a few years ago.

“A person would have to drink one million glasses of water to get the dose of even one over-the-counter ibuprofen tablet or the caffeine in one cup of coffee,” Mr. Rush said. “Even at eight glasses of water per day, this would take the average person over 300 years to consume.”

Medications find their way into drinking water supplies after people take the drugs for personal health. Their bodies naturally metabolize some of the medication but the rest simply passes through and ends up flushed down the toilet. Unused and outdated medications are also often flushed away.

Sewage treatment plants remove wastes and chemicals, but not all pharmaceuticals, before discharging the treated effluent into rivers and streams, which can eventually flow into reservoirs. In most metropolitan areas, water is again filtered and treated before it is piped into homes and businesses. But minute residues of many drugs can remain.

New York City is one of only five major water systems in the country that are exempt from federal regulations requiring drinking water from reservoirs to be filtered.

By ANTHONY DePALMA

New York Times