Does quantity affect quality?

The folks at Organic Style magazine seem to think so, giving Lawrence a low rating in a survey of drinking water in 25 selected cities — largely because of the 20 or so contaminants found in the city’s drinking water in 2002.

“I would be concerned about it,” said Robert Weinhold, the New Mexico analyst who conducted the survey for the national magazine’s September issue. “My rough guideline is … if there are 10 to 15 pollutants in your water, you might think about filtering it.”

But city officials dispute the ranking.

Yes, they say, there are plenty of contaminants in Lawrence water — but not very much of any one of them. Environmental Protection Agency reports dating to 1993 show no health violations for Lawrence water, which is taken from Clinton Lake and the Kansas River.

“We don’t doubt there’s contaminants in the river,” said City Manager Mike Wildgen. “That’s why we treat them.”

Drink the water?

Choosing which side to give credence to isn’t simple, even for environmentalists.

“It depends on the (federal safety) levels set, whether you have confidence in them,” said Charles Benjamin, the Lawrence-based attorney for the Kansas Sierra Club. “The question is, do you feel comfortable drinking any weed killer?”

But, Benjamin added: “I don’t know that I have any concerns about drinking Lawrence water. I drink Lawrence tap water — the only thing I do is put it through a Brita filter, but I forget to do that most of the time.”

Water ranking information 2004 Consumer Confidence report for Lawrence City water and sewer rates

Organic Style ranked Lawrence water cleanliness in the bottom third, 19th out of 25, of the cities it surveyed. Eugene, Ore., was cited for the cleanest water.

But the ranking is not necessarily indicative of how clean Lawrence’s water actually is. For instance, Weinhold offered no criteria for how cities were selected for the survey.

“We’re just trying to pick representative cities from around the country, of all sizes,” he said. “You can’t say that (Lawrence is in the bottom third of water quality). This is just a small fraction of cities. It is a pretty good small sample.”

Complicated score

What’s more, Lawrence’s ranking isn’t entirely dependent on Lawrence water. It’s a composite score based on water from across Douglas County.

To create the city’s ranking, Weinhold used the 2003 Consumer Confidence Reports — a federally required public report on drinking water pollution testing — from five area water utilities: Lawrence, Kansas University, Baldwin, Eudora and Douglas County Rural Water District No. 3.

That composite indicated Lawrence had 26 different contaminants in its drinking water. The 2003 report, though, indicated a maximum 21 pollutants in the city’s water. The 2004 report, released last month, shows 18 contaminants.

But Weinhold said Lawrence had the worst water among the five utilities, with a score of 160 points. Five points were given for each contaminant, accounting for 105 of the city’s points.

Each contaminant was then given a rating from one to 10 points, with more points for heavier pollution levels. Given that Lawrence scored only another 55 points among those 21 contaminants, that averaged less than three points per contaminant. In other words, the pollutants in Lawrence water were there at low levels.

The worst pollutant in city water? Atrazine, the herbicide runoff — the highest test in 2002 found 4.6 parts per billion of herbicide in water at the Kaw River Treatment Plant, above the 3 parts per billion average allowed by federal standards. But the average atrazine test at the plant during the year came in at 0.6 parts per billion.

When tests register above the allowable level, Wildgen said, “you tweak the treatment process to lower it to a safe standard.” No public alert is made.

‘We’re great’

City officials emphasized several times that, otherwise, those pollutants fall well within federal safety standards.

“I look at our data and we’re great,” said Shari Stamer, the city’s water quality manager. She added: “We’re doing our testing — we answer to KDHE and EPA, we have no violations and we’re in compliance.”

Not all Lawrencians are convinced.

“I had concerns,” said Shane Merrifield, who bought bottled water this week at the Community Mercantile. “The river’s right there and it’s got the sign you’re not supposed to eat the fish.”

And Weinhold said a lot more work was needed to build a truly objective ranking of city water quality.

“There’s no way really to tell yet whether Lawrence would end up in the top half” of the rankings, he said. “Nobody’s done this kind of extensive analysis — this is kind of breaking new ground.”