Yes, it’s in there. The safe level is no more than 10 parts per billion parts water. Astoundingly, the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board suggested to the West Virginia Legislature that it be set at 50. This is in spite of a 1999 National Academy of Science study stating that 50 could cause cancer in 2 out of 100 citizens, and not achieve the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) goal and charge of protecting public health.
The EPA and Congress are still debating the arsenic maximum allowable contaminant level. The Bush Administration in March put a hold in a new standard of 10, though this is what is now used by the World Health Organization and the European Union. You can let them know of your concern -- and our state government as well.
Long-term exposures to Arsenic in drinking water even at low concentrations can lead to cancer in the bladder, lung, and prostate, and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, anemia and immunological neurological effects, and reproductive and developmental problems. Arsenic sources are mostly from fossil fuels and some industrial sites.
Mercury -- Deadly Fallout from Burning Coal A new form of sex discrimination? (submitted by Don Gasper)
The West Virginia Health Department in July, 2001, advised young women, particularly pregnant women, to limit their consumption of fish from any West Virginia body of water to no more than one fish meal per week. The advisory warns only 2 ounces of cooked fish per child, while adults can consume 6 ounces.
Mercury can effect the central nervous system leading to birth defects, impaired vision, loss of coordination, inability to walk, numbness, slurred speech and damaged hearing.
Mercury, like PCBs, can be bio-accumulated in the aquatic food web. So it is most concentrated in the larger aquatic predators that are most commonly eaten. Osprey or eagles or the few terrestrial predators that might eat even these fish continue to accumulate it.
Airborne deposition over the landscape is the major source, and coal-fired power plants account for one-third of all mercury sources nationally. It is even more here as West Virginia is just downwind of 30% of these emissions in the entire US, and our state has been exposed to such deposition for so much longer. It is probable that we in West Virginia have probably been getting two times the amount for twice as long as the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay where these great water bodies have been found to be effected – and fish consumption advisories now exist.
A clean-up here would reduce their problems as well. It clearly is needed to preserve our health. The Federal Government (the Environmental Protection Agency and Congress) is now considering legislation and rules on mercury. It might be important that you promptly voice your concerns. We should not have to live under this cloud of mercury contamination which falls everywhere.
Mountain Lions on The Eastern Forest
Wildlife Agencies say there are none. There is a group that keeps track of reported sightings. They are convinced a few are out there – when reports are clustered in time and space. Since 1983, "Outdoor Life" notes, there have been more than 5,000 reported sightings. Last year there were 65 in Pennsylvania, 49 in New York, 23 in Maryland, 19 in West Virginia, 15 in New Jersey and 10 in Massachusetts. In Canada they reported 16 from Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.