Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are seeping into drinking water supplies in scattered locations across the country, according to a recent investigation by The Associated Press.
 
The disclosure has one Yuma resident concerned, but a city spokesman said local tests have not revealed potential problems.
 
"How long has all this contamination been going on?" asked Jean Wilson, a longtime La Mesa Manor resident and the outdoor columnist for The Sun. "Is this why my dog started to have convulsions a couple of years ago?"
 
For her family's drinking water, Wilson has been using filtered water but to make coffee or cooking she relies on tap water. Reading about the AP reports of chemicals in the water makes a person wonder, she noted.
 
"Maybe heat destroys the chemicals but it raises a lot of questions," Wilson said. "I'll definitely be interested to hear from somebody in the city to learn what they have to say, if anything."
 
Wilson has a 7-year-old Dalmation who suffers convulsions and she thought it could possibly be from the tap water. Her dog is on medication, and Wilson's veterinarian has not determined what causes the convulsions, but her dog has been examined for "everything under the sun."
 
"Maybe it actually has not occurred here, that would be wonderful," Wilson said. "But the possibility that it does affect Yuma, it is a good idea for the city to act on it."
 
According to the AP, a five-month investigation has shown that the small amounts of medications in the water are to blame for reproductive problems in many types of fish including: the razorback sucker, fathead minnow, walleyes and carp. There are also problems with other wildlife such as kidney failure in vultures, impaired reproduction in mussels and inhibited growth in algae.
 
Officials in Philadelphia found that treated drinking water showed traces of medicine for: infections, high cholesterol, asthma, mental illness and heart problems. Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in treated drinking water in Southern California.
 
The AP study noted, medications get into the water because they are only partially absorbed when people take them so some of the medicine ends up in wastewater where it is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs. Some of that water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and then piped to consumers. 
 
Yuma partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture this past year to test water for 24 substances and only found four, according to Dave Nash, spokesman for the city of Yuma.
 
One of the chemicals was caffeine - detected in 32 parts per trillion in untreated water and 27 parts per trillion in drinking water.
 
Also detected were carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant mood stabilizer found in 1.2 parts per trillion in river water and 1.3 parts per trillion in drinking water, and triclocarban, an antibacterial.
 
Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used to treat urinary tract infections, was found only in untreated water - 2.5 parts per trillion.
  
All of the chemicals detected were found to be at a level of parts per trillion, which is a very minuscule amount, Nash stressed.
 
"Detectable does not mean harmful," Nash said.
  
Long-term effects of even this small level of exposure is unknown, Nash cautioned. There are technologies being investigated to remove organic compounds from drinking water, he noted.
 
Nash recommended, in order to protect watersheds from contamination: Avoid flushing medications down toilets, sinks or drains; use household chemicals in the smallest amounts needed to get the job done; and keep commercial waste out of the residential disposal system.
 
The AP study also noted that the head of a group representing major California water suppliers said, the public does not know how to interpret the testing information and might be unduly alarmed.


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William Roller can be reached at
wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858.