Homeowners look to nearby Solon for safe water

SOLON - One of 14 homeowners in a development nestled next to Lake Macbride Golf Course, Mark Steiger just wants safe drinking water for his family.

Untreated, the water in his neighborhood's community well has arsenic levels nearly twice the safe threshold identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

To address the issue, Gallery Acres West's roughly 40 residents have asked nearby Solon, home to about 2,500 people, to allow the development to connect to the city's water supply.

'We're members of the community. This really comes down to, I think, an ethical decision,” said Steiger, president of the Gallery Acres West homeowners association.

But the issue has proved to be complicated.

The Solon City Council must decide if and how it should allow Gallery Acres West to connect to city water while wading though an ongoing discussion that has been filled with unfamiliar concepts, residents' concerns, misinformation and - for some - a sense of moral obligation to help those in need.

'These are our neighbors. I don't care if they're not a block from us - they're our neighbors,” said City Council member Lynn Morris.

However, some Solon residents who spoke at a recent public meeting said they felt differently.

'It's not the city of Solon's problem,” said former council member Kevin Samek. 'We need to take care of our own water and our own citizens that pay taxes in Solon ... it's ludicrous.”

The situation near Solon is far from unusual in Iowa. Raw water supplies in at least three other nearby developments, accounting for about 400 additional people, have tested at unsafe levels of arsenic. That doesn't count the private wells.

Statewide, more than 35,000 - or 6 percent - of the roughly 591,000 domestic wells in Iowa are likely to have arsenic concentrations above 10 parts per billion, or the maximum level set by the EPA, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released this year.

Public water supplies that exceed 10 ppb of arsenic, like that in Gallery Acres West, surpass the EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level and are required to comply.

'Arsenic has become an issue that has come to the forefront in terms of public health,” said Peter Weyer, director of the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination. 'These little public water systems that are having difficulties with it, that's a tough situation. They've got to determine what they need to do and try to take care of it because they're regulated.”

ARSENIC'S DANGERS

Arsenic occurs naturally, with traces of the element found in groundwater, lakes and rivers.

According to the State Hygienic Laboratory, chronic or repeated ingestion of water with too much arsenic is associated with increased risk of skin, bladder, lung, kidney and prostate cancer - as well as non-cancerous effects like diabetes, cardiovascular, immunological and neurological disorders.

The legal amount allowed in a public water supply - defined as a system with at least 15 service connections or one that serves a minimum of 25 people for at least 60 days in a year - was reduced in 2001 by the EPA from 50 to 10 ppb. Full compliance was supposed to be met by January 2006. The EPA has proposed reducing that level to 5 ppb, but no action has been taken.

The water at Gallery Acres West has arsenic levels above 20 ppb.

A public service that fails to meet regulations is placed on a compliance schedule. Gallery Acres West is required to reach compliance by the end of February 2019, Department of Natural Resources documents show.

'If we can't get through a compliance schedule with Gallery Acres, it ultimately would go to legal. EPA might even step in and say, ‘Iowa, you're not getting it done. We're going to come in.' And they will not work with them. They will put hefty fines on them, more than we have authority to give,” Mark Moeller, water supply engineering supervisor with DNR, said at the recent meeting. 'So ultimately it gets ugly ...”

‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG'

Deborah Quade, supervisor of geology and groundwater with the DNR, said water testing in the area has found that arsenic levels at Gallery Acres West are not unique for the region.

'When we get north of the (Coralville) reservoir, we seem to see a number of wells that have fairly high concentrations of arsenic - that are approaching the MCL or in the case of Gallery Acres, exceeding it,” Quade said.

According to DNR data, untreated water at nearby developments Macbride Estates, Macbride Point and Lake Crest Manor #3 barely meet or exceed the maximum level, ranging from 10 to 15 ppb.

Some of those developments have on-site iron filtration units, which help lower arsenic levels, while others have not reached the point of being regulated.

So while Gallery Acres West is the development in discussion now, another public well could find itself out of compliance in the future, Quade said.

'What we're dealing with is, they're the tip of the iceberg,” Quade said.

A landmark survey of rural wells from 2006 to 2008 found that 48 percent of the 473 wells sampled had some level of arsenic and that 8 percent had a level considered a health concern.

'We didn't see any correlation with concentration and things like region of the state or time of the year you sample. What's going on is arsenic is very stable in the environment. If it's there, it's there,” said the UI's Weyer, the study's lead investigator.

The good news is water supplies with safe levels of arsenic are not likely to see an increase.

If a well is found to have unsafe levels of arsenic, Weyer said its owners can try to install point of source treatment, try their luck drilling a new well with lover arsenic levels or - as Gallery Acres West proposes - simply get out of the water business.

But as Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, pointed out, water treatment is expensive for small communities, let alone homeowners.

'I empathize with these folks. They've done everything in their power to try to come up with a compromise. ... I still hold out hope there is a compromise,” he said.

Pipeline proposal

Reports by Snyder & Associates, an engineering firm working with Gallery Acres West, say a 3-inch, roughly 3-mile water pipe would be necessary to adequately serve the development.

But that size of pipe would be too small to later take on more users.

Gallery Acres West earlier this year was approved for a $1.04 million loan through the state's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program. The 75 percent forgivable loan was approved for an 8-inch pipe, which would provide the added capacity to serve additional nearby residents if needed in the future.

The DNR's Moeller said the department opened up the temporary loan program to address water services dealing with immediate public safety concerns, such as Gallery Acres West.

'We have never offered 75 percent loan forgiveness before - not even close - and we probably may not ever see that type of loan forgiveness again,” he said.

However, some Solon residents, like Antonia Russo, have expressed concern that studies have not taken place to determine what sort of strain those additional homes would have on Solon's water plant.

'This city is not qualified at this point to make any decisions about extending our water supply,” Russo said. 'This is amateur hour.”

If the pipe is denied by the council, other options include drilling a second well or adding point-of-source treatment, But such options are costly and don't guarantee compliance, Steiger said.

'Brainstorm through every option you can think of, we've gone down that path ... Our Option 2 is to drill another well and cross our fingers,” he said.

If the pipe were approved, Gallery Acres West would be responsible for the other $250,000. An agreement between Solon and the homeowners association would set rates for the new customers.

Wednesday, Solon Mayor Steve Stange directed the council to come up with a list of questions they need answered before voting. Stange's hope is to have a decision in December.

'We need to discuss that information and make a decision,” he said. 'These folks need to have an answer.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com