Tainted Water: New Drinking Water Threat Concerns Scientists, Officials

"A coalition of researchers, utilities and state regulators have made progress tracking an unregulated and unwelcome contaminant in river water feeding drinking water supplies. Can they stop it?"

"When the EPA ordered drinking water systems nationwide to test their water for a long list of unregulated contaminants, North Carolina water systems scored high on tests most systems would wish to fail.

Some of the highest levels nationally of a likely cancer-causing chemical 1,4 dioxane were detected in North Carolina water systems in the Cape Fear River Basin, which supplies water to more than 120 public water systems used by 1.5 million residents.

Finding the human-made substance, used in many types of manufacturing, was unwelcome for two big reasons. Long-term exposure to 1-4 dioxane, even at very low levels, likely causes cancer, the EPA says. And conventional water treatment technologies cannot remove it."

Catherine Clabby reports for North Carolina Health News September 12, 2016.