Public Health Watch: Black Water - How Industry Fights Controls On Manganese, A Little-Known Drinking Water Contaminant

By Natasha Gilbert

This article was first published in Public Health Watch and the Grist on August 29, 2023 and documents how manganese in drinking water could harm infants and children and how industries are downplaying the risks in their fight against tighter controls.

The article highlights the discovery and problems caused by manganese contamination in the drinking water supply of the Borough of Industry in Beaver County.

While manganese can occur naturally, it is also found in wastewater discharges from steel manufacturers, coal-fired power plants, in oil and gas wastewater and in coal mine runoff and discharges.

Click Here to read the entire article.

Background In PA

Efforts were also made to weaken manganese discharge standards in Pennsylvania.

In 2017, at the request of the coal industry and others, an amendment was slipped into a bill needed to implement the state budget agreement that both weakened the existing DEP water quality discharge limit for manganese and changed the point of compliance for the discharge from the point wastewater entered a stream to the point where it was taken out.  Read more here.

Local government groups, drinking water suppliers and many other groups opposed the last minute amendment, which Republican legislators ignored. Read More here.

The amendment placed nearly all the burden for the treatment of manganese pollution on those using the water rather than polluting it.  Read more here.

While DEP proposed the less protective standard as directed by law, it also proposed an update to the Water Quality Toxics standard for manganese.  Read more here.

Long-story-short, DEP went through the entire regulatory process-- proposed and final-- and then in December 2022 withdrew the regulation from consideration after the Independent Regulatory Review Commission disapproved the regulation.  Read more here.

It is likely efforts to change the manganese standard in Pennsylvania will continue.

(Photo: David Butts inspects tainted water collected from taps in his home in the Borough of Industry, Beaver County, when his filter is shut off. Tests have shown his tap water contains manganese.)

Related Articles:

-- EQB Approves Final Reg. Setting Manganese Toxics Water Quality Standard, RACT For Major Sources Of Nitrogen Oxides  [PaEN]

-- IRRC Sends Order Laying Out Formal Reasons For Disapproving The Final EQB Manganese Reg; EQB/DEP Now Have 40 Days To Decide How To Proceed  [PaEN]

-- DEP Withdraws Final Manganese Water Quality Standard Regulation Ending Rulemaking; Existing Standard Remains In Place  [PaEN]

-- Court: Republican Senators Lack Standing To Sue Environmental Quality Board Over Missed Deadline On Adopting Less Protective Manganese Standard  [PaEN]

[Posted: August 29, 2023]  PA Environment Digest