WATER QUALITY CHANGE MAY HELP SMALL TOWNS

Small communities that can't afford to comply with safe federal drinking water standards may be able to do so soon with the consent of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Peter Censky, executive director of the Water Quality Association near Chicago, Ill., said Friday the EPA is on the verge of approving a more affordable water treatment solution that the association recommends. The solution involves two options: the use of an industrial-size water treatment system or water filters in every household in a community.

Censky spoke Friday at the Missouri Water Quality Association's winter meeting at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn. The meeting concluded Saturday.

Currently, Censky said, as many as 60,000 communities around the nation are out of compliance with federal drinking water standards. These communities, he said, have one or more health contaminants that exceed federal minimum levels.

"This industry has the technology to reduce those contaminants well below federal contaminant levels," said Censky.

Small communities with 300 to 1,000 people might have to spend $2 million to $3 million for water treatment systems, he said, but can't afford it. Under the solution the association recommends, the cost could drop as low as $60,000 or $70,000, he said.

"It would provide better quality water than the $2 million project," he said. "It's a classic water solution."

The EPA in Washington, D.C. told him that within the next two or three months it will begin telling communities that these solutions will be available to them to comply with the federal regulations, said Censky.

He said the options are now available to smaller communities, but that communities are nervous about using them because of disapproval by state regulators. Convincing state regulators of the options' adequacy is one hurdle that needs to be cleared, he said, as well as putting the needed personnel through special training.

The association's meeting also featured speakers Stan Ziarkowski, vice president of Domestic Ion Exchange with Sybron Chemicals in Birmingham, N.J., and George Ellis, who manages development of drinking water products at Kinetico Inc. in Newberry, Ohio. Before joining Kinetico, Ellis worked for Life Systems Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as NASA project manager in the development of a system for the U.S. Space Shuttle that converts urine back into drinking water.