The Health Effects of Arsenic and Other Toxic Metals in Bangladesh’s Drinking Water
Seth H. Frisbie, Better Life Laboratories, East Calais, VT
Richard Ortega, Laboratoire de Chimie Nucléaire Analytique et Bioenvironnementale, Gradignan, France
Erika J. Mitchell, Better Life Laboratories, East Calais, VT
Donald M. Maynard, The Johnson Company, Montpelier, VT
Bibudhendra Sarkar, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Comparison of Long-term Availability of As at between a CCA-wood Treatment Site and CCA-treated Wood Test Site
Tait Chirenje, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ
Lena Q. Ma, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Gina Kertulis, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Richard Cardellino, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Edward Zillioux, Florida Power & Light Company, Juno Beach, FL

Effects of Different Extraction and Analysis Techniques on the Determination of Arsenic Species in Soils
Hakan Gürleyük, Frontier Geosciences, Seattle, WA
Jeni Garcia, Frontier Geosciences, Seattle, WA  

Phytofiltration of Arsenic: Demonstration of Laboratory and Field Flowthrough Systems
Mark P. Elless, Edenspace Systems Corporation, Dulles, VA   
Charissa Y. Poynton, Edenspace Systems Corporation, Dulles, VA 
Michael J. Blaylock, Edenspace Systems Corporation, Dulles, VA   

Understanding the Cause and the Permanent Solution of Groundwater Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh
Meer Husain, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Wichita, KS
Thomas E. Bridge, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS

The Nexus Between Groundwater Modeling, Pit Lake Arsenic Geochemistry and Ecological Risk in the Getchell Main Pit, Nevada, U.S.A.
Andy Davis, Geomega, Boulder, CO
G.G. Fennemore, Placer Dome U.S., Crescent Valley, NV
T. Bellehumeur, Geomega, Boulder, CO
P. Hunter, Geomega, Boulder, CO
S.Schoen, Placer Dome U.S., Crescent Valley, NV

 

The Health Effects of Arsenic and Other Toxic Metals in Bangladesh’s Drinking Water

Seth H. Frisbie, Better Life Laboratories, 293 George Rd., East Calais, VT 05650, Tel: 802-456-7054, Fax: 802-456-7054, Email: shf3@cornell.edu
Richard Ortega, Université de Bordeaux 1, Laboratoire de Chimie Nucléaire Analytique et Bioenvironnementale, CNRS UMR 5084, 33175 Gradignan, France
Erika J. Mitchell, Better Life Laboratories, 293 George Rd., East Calais, VT 05650, Tel: 802-456-7054, Fax: 802-456-7054, Email em63@cornell.edu
Donald M. Maynard, The Johnson Company, 100 State St., Montpelier, VT 05602, Tel: 802-229-4600, Fax: 802-229-5876, Email: DMM@jcomail.com
Bibudhendra Sarkar, The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto, Department of Structural Biology and Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada, Tel: 416-813-5921, Fax: 416-813-5379, Email: bsarkar@sickkids.on.ca 

The recent transition in Bangladesh from drinking surface water to drinking well water has significantly reduced deaths caused by pathogens.  However, death from arsenic in this well water is now affecting large areas of the country.  In addition, the finding of young children with melanosis and keratosis, which are typical symptoms of arsenic poisoning in adults, and the observation of an analytical interference for the measurement of iron raised the question of other metals magnifying the toxic effects of arsenic (Sarkar, 1998; Frisbie, Maynard, and Hoque, 1999).  In this study, the areal and vertical distribution of arsenic and 29 other inorganic chemicals in well water were determined throughout Bangladesh.  This study of 30 analytes per sample suggests the most significant health risk from drinking Bangladesh’s well water is chronic arsenic poisoning.  The arsenic concentration ranged from <0.0007 to 0.64 mg/L with 48% of samples above the 0.01 mg/L World Health Organization drinking water guideline.  Furthermore unsafe levels of manganese, lead, nickel, and chromium in drinking water were discovered in large areas of Bangladesh.  Our survey also suggests that well water with unsafe levels of arsenic, manganese, lead, nickel, and chromium may extend beyond Bangladesh’s border into the 4 adjacent and densely populated states of India.  In addition to the health risks from individual toxins, possible multimetal synergistic and inhibitory effects are evaluated.  Antimony was detected in 98% of the samples from this study and magnifies the toxic effects of arsenic.  In contrast, selenium and zinc were below our detection limits in large parts of Bangladesh and prevent the toxic effects of arsenic.  Our results may allow scientists, policy makers and aid workers to initiate programs to assist the areas most affected by the toxic metals documented by this study.

Comparison of Long-term Availability of As at between a CCA-wood Treatment Site and CCA-treated Wood Test Site

Tait Chirenje, Natural Science and Math, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ 08240-0195, Tel: 609-652-4588, Fax: 609-758-5518, Email : tait.chirenje@stockton.edu
Lena Q. Ma, Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0290, Tel: 352-392-1951, Fax: 352-392-3902, Email:lqma@ufl.edu
Gina Kertulis, Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0290, Tel: 352-392-1951, Fax: 352-392-3902, Email: kertulis@ufl.edu
Richard Cardellino, Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0290
Edward Zillioux, Florida Power & Light Company, Juno Beach, FL 33408

Contamination of soils by arsenic (As) is of concern due to both its acute and chronic effects on human beings. The form of As, determined by the nature of its source and soil factors, governs its availability and subsequent uptake by both flora and fauna. This study was carried out to determine the long term availability of As at two different sites: (a) a site that used to be a chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood plant, and (b) a site that has had test plots for the leaching of As, copper (Cu) and chromium (Cr) from CCA-treated wood for more than 50 years. Profile soil samples were collected from various spots at the two sites, digested and analyzed for total As. Soil samples were also analyzed for different species of As using a fractionation technique. Preliminary results showed that arsenic concentrations and speciation at the two sites were different. The CCA-treatment site had at least an order of magnitude higher As concentrations than the treated wood site, possibly due to the direct leaking of the somewhat concentrated treating solution from the plant into the surrounding soils. Concentrations at the treated wood test site reflected that lower concentrations of As had leached from the wood and even lower concentrations were retained be the soil. Only relatively available As leached out of the wood, and therefore was not readily sorbed by the soil, at the treated wood test site. On the other hand, As persisted at the CCA-treatment site for a very long time because large concentrations were released and they consisted of many different forms (not jus the available form). The implications from these results are that the chemical forms of the released As and soil properties are important in determining its fractionation and eventual bioavailability.

Effects of Different Extraction and Analysis Techniques on the Determination of Arsenic Species in Soils

Hakan Gürleyük, Ph.D, Research Scientist, Frontier Geosciences, 414 Pontius Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, Tel: 206-622-6960, Fax: 206-622-6870, Email: HakanG@FrontierGeosciences.com
Jeni Garcia, Research Associate, Frontier Geosciences, 414 Pontius Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, Tel: 206-622-6960

Speciation data is usually accepted only by some regulators but there seems to be no set laws or regulations on this matter. The lack of species-specific regulations is mostly due to the absence of methods that can reliably measure the analytes of interest at the regulatory levels. The most common method for the extraction of As species from soils and sediments is the use of phosphate-based solutions. In this method, a 0.1 M phosphoric acid solution is used to extract As(III) and a 0.1 M Sodium phosphate solution for As(V) and methylated arsenic species. After extraction, the first extract is analyzed for As(III), while the second is analyzed for total inorganic arsenic and methylated arsenic species by hydride generation - cryo-trapping – atomic absorption spectrometry (HG-CT-AAS) which provides detection limits below 0.001 mg/Kg. It is very important to use a method that can differentiate between As(III), As(V) and organic arsenic species in the extracts instead of total inorganic As analysis. Time after time, we have seen that other As species are also extracted in each step that can not be distinguished from the target species by total inorganic arsenic analyses. For instance, during extraction of As(III), we have seen that 8 times more As(V) was extracted in addition to various other organo-arsenic species. This means that if total inorganic arsenic was determined instead of As(III), a false and significantly high concentration for As(III) would be obtained. This could cause costly wrong decisions in risk assessment, treatment and remediation studies. Another alternative to HG-CT-AAS is using ion chromatography coupled to an ICP-MS (IC-ICP-MS). This technique can determine each As species in a single run and allows determination of arsenosugars that are present in fish tissue. Various cases will be presented where the use of different analytical techniques resulted in unreliable data.

Phytofiltration of Arsenic: Demonstration of Laboratory and Field Flowthrough Systems

Mark P. Elless, Edenspace Systems Corporation, 15100 Enterprise Court, Suite 100, Dulles, VA  20151, Tel:  703-961-8700, Fax:  703-961-8939, Email: elless@edenspace.com
Charissa Y. Poynton, Edenspace Systems Corporation, 15100 Enterprise Court, Suite 100, Dulles, VA  20151, Tel:  703-961-8700, Fax:  703-961-8939, Email: cyp@edenspace.com
Michael J. Blaylock, Edenspace Systems Corporation, 15100 Enterprise Court, Suite 100, Dulles, VA  20151, Tel:  703-961-8700, Fax:  703-961-8939, Email: blaylock@edenspace.com  

The national standard for arsenic in drinking water has recently been lowered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 50 to 10 μg/L, with small drinking water systems carrying the majority of the burden for complying with this new limit. Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata), recently discovered to naturally hyperaccumulate arsenic in soil, was grown under hydroponic conditions to determine whether this fern could be used to remove arsenic from drinking water supplies to levels that meet this new limit. During the optimization of this technology through a series of batch experiments, the effect of source water quality (e.g., pH, dissolved ions, arsenic oxidation state), Pteris species, as well as growth and operating conditions on the efficiency of arsenic uptake were investigated. Currently, two flowthrough systems have been developed, with one system at Edenspace for continual testing of performance parameters (e.g., flow rate, influent arsenic concentration, quantity of clean water produced, residence time) and the other system deployed in Albuquerque, New Mexico to test performance of the system under actual site conditions. The test at Albuquerque focused on using the system as a polishing step to remove arsenic from low levels near the 10 μg/L standard.  Under low flow rates (< 500 gallons per day), the system was capable of consistently achieving arsenic concentrations of less than 2 μg/L in the effluent. Performance of both systems under varying operating conditions will be presented, illustrating their potential use at small drinking water systems.

Understanding the Causes and the Permanent Solution of the Groundwater Arsenic Poisoning in  Bangladesh

Meer T. Husain, P.G., Environmental Geologist, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, 130 S. Market, 6th Floor, Wichita, KS 67202-3802, Tel: 316-337-6046, Fax: 316 337 6023, Email: mhusain@kdhe.state.ks.us
and Cowley County Community College, Kansas
Thomas E. Bridge, Ph.D., Professor of Geology (emeritus), Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, Tel: 620-279-4230

The groundwater arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh is the largest disaster in the history of human civilization. More than 100 million people have been drinking arsenic poison water on a daily basis. A large number of scientists believe that the groundwater arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh is a natural disaster, that the poisoning has been present for thousands of years, and that oxyhydroxide reduction is the main mechanism for the mobilization of arsenic into groundwater. However, historical ground water use data from the dug wells and the tube wells, historical medical data, arsenic toxicological data, hydrological, hydrogeological and geochemical parameters reject the reduction hypothesis and suggest that the groundwater arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh is a recent, man-made disaster and that oxidation is probably the principal mechanism for releasing arsenic into groundwater. 

The oxidation of arsenic bearing minerals present in the Bengal delta sediments is responsible for the release of arsenic oxides in solution to the ground water. The subsequent migration of this arsenic contaminated groundwater through these deltaic sediments is the principal causes of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh.

Arsenic bearing minerals of several kinds are present in deltaic environments rich in organic matter. Available sources for arsenic are the ocean, coal beds in India and mountains to the north. Minerals formed in these reducing-environments below the groundwater table would be stable unless they were exposed to oxidizing-environments. If the groundwater table were lowered by increased irrigation during the dry season or by pumping deep tube wells and irrigation wells drilled below the zone of fluctuation exposing the sediments to the oxygen of the atmosphere, then these arsenic rich minerals would oxidize thus releasing arsenic.

Increased irrigation did become necessary during India's 30 years of unilateral diversion of river water from the Ganges, Tista and 28+ common rivers of Bangladesh and India. This cut the normal flow of the 30+ rivers during the dry season. If the oxidation of arsenic bearing minerals is the cause of arsenic release to the groundwater due to a lowered water table then the solution to the arsenic problem is to restore the natural river flow of the Ganges, Tista and other common rivers of Bangladesh and India.  This would restore the groundwater level to a level that existed in Bangladesh prior to the construction and commission of Farakka Barrage in 1975.

Other man made environmental disasters created by the Farakka, Tista and other barrages/dams constructed in the common rivers of Bangladesh and India would also be solved if these barrages were removed and a normal flow restored. The river beds could then be dredged and  groundwater produced at a safe yield rate. A comprehensive plan not only for water supplies but associated waste disposal should be worked out for all of Bangladesh.  Individual units within the plan could then be developed on the bases of need and tied into the overall plan as it develops.

The Nexus Between Groundwater Modeling, Pit Lake Arsenic Geochemistry and Ecological Risk in the Getchell Main Pit, Nevada, U.S.A.

Andy Davis, Geomega, 2995 Baseline Road, Suite 202, Boulder, CO 80303, Tel: 303-938-8115, Email: andy@geomega.com
G.G. Fennemore, Placer Dome U.S., Crescent Valley, NV, 89821
T. Bellehumeur, 2995 Baseline Road, Suite 202, Boulder, CO 80303
P. Hunter, 2995 Baseline Road, Suite 202, Boulder, CO 80303
S. Schoen, Placer Dome U.S., Crescent Valley, NV, 89821

The proliferation of mine pits that intersect the groundwater table has engendered interest in the environmental consequences of the lakes that form after cessation of dewatering activities. Due to naturally occurring arsenic mineralization, the Getchell area has ambient groundwater-As up to 1 mg/L. To simulate post-closure groundwater inflows, MODFLOW-SURFACT was calibrated to head data collected during formation of an earlier pit lake at the site, and to dewatering data collected during later development of the underground workings. Predictive simulations show that the pit lake will be a terminal water body recovering to within 99% of the pre-mining water level within 100 years after termination of dewatering.

To predict pit lake chemistry, wall rock characteristic of the Ultimate Pit Surface (UPS) was leached in humidity cells to develop Chemical Release Functions (CRFs) describing temporal UPS leaching. The groundwater flows through the UPS (from MODFLOW-SURFACT) were coupled with the oxidized thickness of the exposed UPS and the CRFs for each lithological unit to compute pit lake water quality. The juvenile Getchell Main Pit lake (after 5 years) is predicted to be a calcium sulfate, pH 7.8 water body containing 920 mg/L TDS and 0.6 mg/L As. Evaporation and later inflows result in a mature pit lake (at 100 years) with a pH of 7.9, 1580 mg/L TDS and 0.9 mg/L As. The predicted pit lake chemistry was consistent with the pre-dewatering pit lake chemistry. 

The pit lake chemistry was used as input to an ecological risk assessment for the for 8 indicator species; the mallard duck, cliff swallow, golden eagle, little brown bat, spotted sandpiper, deer mouse, mule deer and cattle. Receptor exposure scenarios for the mature pit lake demonstrated that As dose concentrations were driven primarily by food ingestion for the receptor species, except for the sandpiper (a shore bird) where sediment ingestion was the driver. However, because As does not bioaccumulate substantially in the food chain it did not translate into an unacceptable dose.