Chemical injected into SC town’s water worried NC experts in 2006
Citing health and environmental concerns, North Carolina regulators barred the use of a chemical in 2006 that South Carolina later approved for at least three small drinking water systems in the Palmetto State.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources found evidence of potentially toxic pollution in one well it tested that relied on a system that uses the chemical compound HaloSan to clean bacteria from wells, records show.. North Carolina’s action followed a state health- risk study that raised multiple concerns about the HaloSan system.
“This evaluation determined that there is insufficient data to demonstrate the safety of the proposed usage,’’ according to an Oct. 20, 2006, letter from N.C. regulator Ted Bush to Berry Systems of Lugoff, the HaloSan system’s manufacturer.
N.C. regulators rejected the use of the HaloSan system because the agency was concerned the material could create harmful pollution in wells that could spread. The well tested by N.C. regulators contained contaminant levels that exceeded state standards, the 2006 letter said.
S.C. regulators have said Halosan is safe if used properly. But too much HaloSan in drinking water can be harmful to people’s eyes and skin. Berry Systems has declined comment. On its web site, it touts HaloSan’s benefits in keeping wells clean.
Two years after North Carolina barred HaloSan, S.C. regulators authorized its use in Denmark, a small city an hour’s drive south of Columbia. The state also has authorized HaloSan’s use in water systems serving a Columbia-area business and a small Newberry County campground, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC relied on a national certification agency’s approval of HaloSan to permit its use in South Carolina. But that certification has come into question, according to documents obtained this week by The State. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also never approved HaloSan for use in drinking water.
Because of concerns about HaloSan, the three S.C. water systems using it have been told to discontinue its use until DHEC learns more about the product, DHEC officials said this week. A well used in Denmark to inject Halosan was shut down months ago, but DHEC has only recently told the other two water systems to quit using Halosan, agency officials said.
“We’ve suggested they discontinue the use of this material for the potable needs and go to bottled water until this is resolved,’’ said Mike Marcus, DHEC’s water bureau chief of the two additional systems.
Aside from the three public water systems in South Carolina, HaloSan has been used illegally in private wells in North Carolina, records show. Tarheel State regulators took enforcement action last year against a company for installing HaloSan-based water treatment systems on 60 private wells.
Marcus said DHEC has not decided what to tell private well owners in South Carolina who may have used HaloSan.
But DHEC environment chief Myra Reece said, “We plan on having lots of conversations with the state of North Carolina.’’
It is not known how many private wells — if any — have been injected with HaloSan in South Carolina, but hundreds of thousands of people in the state rely on backyard wells for their drinking water.
The city of Denmark quit putting HaloSan in its water this past July after pesticide regulators from Clemson University ordered the city to stop using it to kill slime in one well.
Denmark has been in an uproar since residents learned through the media that HaloSan had been injected into their water for 10 years. At least two lawsuits were filed in November. Hundreds of people have lined up during the past two weeks to pick up free bottled water, supplied by law firms. DHEC says the town’s water is safe.
It is unclear when DHEC first learned about North Carolina’s concerns with HaloSan, but emails released this week show the agency was in touch with N.C. regulators two years ago.
North Carolina questioned whether the active ingredient in HaloSan could cause the possible buildup of cancer-causing pollution in wells, according to a Sept. 30, 2016, email from N.C. regulator Landon Davidson to DHEC. Those pollutants are known as disinfection byproducts and, in some cases, can be cancerous.
“The concern centers around potentially carcinogenic disinfection by-products, which could remain present in the well and potentially groundwater surrounding the injection treatment well,’’ Davidson wrote.
Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech researcher who helped expose the Flint, Mich., water crisis, said North Carolina’s concerns about HaloSan support questions he has had about the material. Edwards has been working with Denmark residents concerned about the quality of their water.
“I can’t imagine anyone rational looking at this and approving it,’’ Edwards said.
Edwards said DHEC probably made an “innocent mistake’’ in approving HaloSan for Denmark’s water. But if DHEC learned of North Carolina’s decision not to approve HaloSan two years ago, it should have looked more carefully at whether it was suitable for South Carolina, he said.
“They ignored the warning signs.’
Officials at DHEC defended the agency’s actions in originally approving the use of HaloSan to kill bacteria in Denmark’s water and the two other water systems.
The department did not approve HaloSan until it checked with NSF International, a respected certifying organization that tests products for safety, officials said this week. NSF had certified HaloSan for drinking water, according to DHEC.
“It was on the NSF certification list,’’ DHEC spokesman Tommy Crosby said.
The S.C. agency said it has not given statewide approval for the compound’s use in public drinking water systems. The agency takes such requests on a case-by-case basis, department officials said.
HaloSan was approved for use in Denmark because the water in the S.C. city has different characteristics than in some places in North Carolina, DHEC’s Marcus said. There may be other parts of South Carolina where it would not be suitable, he said.
Marcus said many of the concerns in North Carolina center on how HaloSan could spur the buildup of disinfection byproducts that can be dangerous to people’s health.
Buildups of disinfection by products sometimes occur when water is treated with chlorine or bromine compounds to kill bacteria. While effective at killing bacteria, those compounds can mix with natural organic pollutants in the water, causing the accumulation of disinfection byproducts.
But Marcus said DHEC has no evidence that groundwater in Denmark was influenced by natural organic pollutants, such as would be found in a river. Marcus added DHEC would not approve using HaloSan in any community water system if it had evidence that the water had been infiltrated with organic pollutants.
Questions also surfaced this week about the information DHEC relied on to approve HaloSan for Denmark’s drinking water system.
In an Aug. 30, 2006, memo obtained by The State newspaper, a N.C. toxicologist said information used to certify the safety of HaloSan’s ingredients was the wrong type to justify the certification. The certifying organization relied on information that does not reflect the chemistry of groundwater in parts of North Carolina, particularly coastal areas, wrote Luanne K. Williams, a toxicologist with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
The memo also said the certifying agency, NSF International, let HaloSan manufacturer Berry Systems choose how much of the material would be allowed in drinking water.
“This level ... is not a recommended health-protective level for drinking water,’’ Williams wrote. “This is the level that is generally recommended to disinfect spas and fountains but would not be a recommended drinking water level.’’
NSF International spokesman Thomas Frey disputed Williams’ statement that the tested HaloSan level was not suitable for drinking water. He added his agency disagreed “with many” of Williams’ statements.
But DHEC’s Marcus and Crosby said the certification concerns in Williams’ letter are among the questions the state agency is looking into. The department plans to meet with officials at NSF International in coming weeks.
This story was originally published November 30, 2018 at 8:17 PM.
