Contaminants in Public Water Systems - ASBESTOS

Photograph 1:  Asbestos containing material (ACM) that has been properly wrapped in 6 mil. poly, sealed and labeled for disposal.

Worried about contaminants in the public water supply?  Well you should be.  What kind of contaminants?  Let's start with one that you'd probably never think you were drinking.  Let's start with ASBESTOS.  That's right the evil A-word!  You've all seen those lawyer commercials looking for mesothelioma victims to get a piece of that Superfund moola, but how is a mineral that is used in the manufacturing of materials like brake pads, floor tiles and roofing tars possibly getting into the public water supply that we're using to drink?  Well, that's the bitch of it.  Up to 82% of the water main pipes installed over the last 100 years until the late 1980's were reported as being asbestos containing materials (ACM).  

Photograph 2:  Cementitious asbestos water main pipes removed from below grade.

These aging public water supply pipes are slowly degrading and releasing gazillions of asbestos fibers that are known to kill those who inhale or ingest enough of them.  So if this is true, then surely there must be some kind of maximum contaminant level (MCL) to ensure babies aren't being given a deadly dose of the mineral in their drinking formula, right?  Well, of course there is.  Don't be silly.  How irresponsible do you think the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is?  The MCL for asbestos in drinking water is a mere seven (7) million fibers per liter of water (MFL).  That's it.  Anymore may be dangerous to our health. Besides next time someone asks you what you had for lunch, you can be very witty and say: "asbestos".

Photograph 3:  Close up view of cementitious asbestos pipe.  Two forms of asbestos fibers can be identified; crocidolite (blue) and chrysotile (white).

Now let us sit back and think about what we do with this asbestos laced water.  So we've already thought about drinking it or otherwise consuming it by preparing food with it.  Let's see we also bathe and irrigate with it.  Hmmm.  That doesn't really seem to be a problem.  Although you know eventually that water has to dry up and all those asbestos fibers are going to be left over and blowing around in the air inside and outside of our homes.  

But how bad could it be to regularly inhale asbestos fibers?  Well, when an asbestos abatement is conducted by licensed contractors in public buildings such as schools, they are required to run a set of clearance finals within the containment unit where the asbestos was removed.  This involves the collection of at least five (5) air samples plus field/sealed blanks to be collected for analysis.  These air samples, collected through a filtered cassette with a minimum volume of 1200 L, are tested using a transmission electron microscope (TEM).  This thing zooms way the hell in there and an analyst quantifies the amount of asbestos in the sample.  Anything over the regulated limit of 70 structures per square millimeter FAILS.  Pretty strict for being inside a negatively pressurized containment unit with high powdered HEPA filtered air scrubbers.  They must be really worried about the toxicity of this shit.  

So what should we do?  Abatement workers are required to wear class C hazmat scrubs which consists of a tyvek suit, gloves, rubber booties and an air purifying respirator.  Not really something we can knock around in.

Photograph 4:  Asbestos handler spraying amended water inside a bag of ACM waste.

We can always use air sampling equipment in our homes to monitor the air via collection of TEMs.  Although, the lab analysis costs of over $500.00 a set would probably be more than most of us would like to spend.  Oh well, guess we are just doomed by this damned mineral.

Photograph 5:  Low flow air monitoring equipment.