AUGUSTA -- Beth Nagusky agreed to be part of a five-year study that tested well water in 2,000 Greater Augusta homes.

Nagusky, director of the Office of Innovation and Assistance at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said she installed a new pump at her Litchfield home 14 years ago, and at that time, took samples of her well water to test for lead.

When the results came back from the lab, it wasn't lead that contaminated her drinking water supply, but arsenic.

Wanting to help educate people about toxic chemicals that can be found in their wells, Nagusky agreed to participate in the new study, which is being conducted by Columbia University.

Charles Culbertson, a hydrologist with U.S. Geological Survey collaborating with the university on the project, said the study is testing domestic wells for arsenic, uranium and radon, and is in its third year. The results of the study have yet to be published.

He said the focus of the study was to find an area that had old geological maps for comparison to get an understanding of why arsenic occurs.

"Around Maine, there are a number of clusters with the highest levels that we know of in the U.S.," Culbertson said. "Arsenic in Maine is arguably the highest in drinking water throughout the U.S. It's big."

In elevated levels, arsenic and radon have been linked to certain types of cancers, and uranium can affect the kidneys, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

He said Nagusky's Litchfield home is located in a cluster of homes that tested high for levels of arsenic, above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standard for acceptable level for drinking water, which is 10 micrograms per liter.

"We were surprised to find arsenic when we got the test result," Nagusky said. "We went to bottled water for drinking, then had a water treatment system put in, a reverse osmosis system at the sink. (Arsenic) is connected to cancer and low birth rate. Knowing that certainly heightened my sensitivities to all poisons in our environment."

State requirements?

Andy Smith, state toxicologist at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said more than half of all Maine households get their water from private wells.

While public drinking water supplies are routinely tested and remedied so they comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, private water testing is only required usually when the well is drilled, and then the test focuses only on bacteria.

An estimated 11 percent of Maine homes with private wells have elevated arsenic levels above the current health benchmarks, as many as 20 percent have elevated radon levels, and an estimated 4 percent have elevated uranium levels, according to state statistics.

"We have a very robust safety program for public water supply, but don't really have anything dealing with private wells," Smith said.

He said various legislative proposals have required testing, encouraged testing of private wells, or attempted to develop programs that deal with private well safety. But the only law that has been passed so far was one that established certain requirements for those who conduct radon tests.

There are no corresponding laws for companies that install treatment devices for arsenic or uranium, he said.

"I think it is a question of people's perception where the responsibility lies," Smith said. "In the same way homeowners are responsible for dealing with all the other things in a home like air conditioner units and installing wood stoves, the issue of private well safety has been completely left to the responsibility of property owners. They are responsible for ensuring water is safe to drink and finding a person to put in the treatment device who is adequately knowledgeable and experienced at doing it."

'Buyer beware'

But that is difficult, he said, when the state does not require uranium or arsenic service providers to be registered. He said the state can help people with testing well water and understanding the results, but after that installing a system is pretty much "buyer beware."

His department did a joint research project with the U.S. Center for Disease Control that looked at 100 homes that had systems installed to remove arsenic from their drinking water.

He said testers were checking to see how well the units were operating and if the homeowners were maintaining the systems properly.

"We found some (homeowners) hadn't bothered to change the cartridges or tested to make sure it was still working," he said. "In some cases the unit wasn't capable of removing arsenic in the water. And we found some that were installed incorrectly and that's why they weren't working.

"I wouldn't say there was a high percentage of units failing, but it also wasn't trivial either."

He said the state's radon control program provides a list of registered contractors providing air and water radon mitigation.

Testing kids are available at the Maine Health and Environmental Testing laboratory in Augusta and private laboratories. Drinking water should be tested when the mitigation unit is installed and every year after that, he said.

Eric Frohmberg, toxicologist with the state's environmental and occupational health program, said the testing kits are relatively inexpensive.

Uranium a problem, too

Arsenic isn't the only potential problem in wells.

Ten years ago, Frohmberg said people didn't realize there was a prevalence of uranium in Maine. But over the years, more information has been made available about the toxicity of this contaminant, heightening everyone's concern.

Tests for uranium, which is a chemical that causes kidney damage, used to be more expensive, as much as $150. But now they cost $20, he said. To test for all three contaminants would cost about $100, he said.

"We have seen some very high levels of uranium in well water," Frohmberg said. "Half of the state is on well water, and we estimate that about five percent of those have uranium. We want them to test below 20 to 23 parts per billion and every other year we find a well that has levels in the thousands."

Because they can't predict where there might be an issue, Frohmberg said they recommend "that everyone in the state test their well water for arsenic, radon and uranium, naturally occurring contaminants."

Well water testing

Yan Zheng, a geochemist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Colombia University, is the principal investigator on the project.

Since they were sampling for arsenic, she said it was an opportune time to test for radon and uranium levels, as well.

"We found uranium clusters in areas where they had granites," Zheng said.

"We were very surprised with the arsenic samples we took. In the 13 towns we sampled in the Augusta area, 31 percent of the wells exceeded EPA's drinking water standard," Zheng said. "Basically, that's one in every third family with a well that contained arsenic. And it was even more on the western side, heading out towards Winthrop."

She said the results of the project could provide more information to homeowners. Also, through the sampling of well water, patterns for the contamination have been discovered. Arsenic distribution is tied to geology, she said.

"We won't be able to tell what the level of arsenic might be in your well, but we can tell you the probability of how likely it is you might have high arsenic in your well," she said. "That would be important for the development of residential housing."

Toxins and rocks

Bob Marvinney, state director of the Maine Geological Survey, said Maine has the same contaminants as any other New England state.

It all depends on the underlying rock formations, he said.

"It's all related to rocks," Marvinney said. "There's naturally occurring elements in a lot of granites and related rocks. Radon is generated from the natural decay of uranium. That's why everybody should be testing for a whole number of things."

Tom Hess, a professor of physics at the University of Maine, also collaborated with Zheng on the study.

He said there is quite a bit of radon in this area.

"We found some places where water had both arsenic and radon and some of them also had uranium," Hess said.

"With these numbers, we're trying to get people to test. If you move into a home, test it. You have to cough up a couple of bucks to get the measurements, but if they're high you can put a treatment system in then people won't be harmed by the toxins."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com