Six different drugs in Elgin's water? Officials not worried

Elgin was recently found to have six drugs in its drinking water. But city water system officials aren't exactly on edge.

"I'm not trying to play it down and say it's not a problem," Water Superintendent Kyla Jacobsen said. "It is a problem; just not in your drinking water."

In June, the city's water treatment facility received results of tests prompted by a March investigation by the Associated Press.

Elgin, along with Aurora, Chicago, East St. Louis and Rock Island were the Illinois cities whose water was tested in the nationwide study and found to have trace contaminations of pharmaceuticals.

At least 46 million Americans, the testing found, are exposed to pharmaceuticals in their drinking water.

Six drugs - carbamazepine, continine, gemfibrozil, monensin, Deet and nicotine - were found in Elgin's water, which is treated after it's extracted from the Fox River.

Carbamazepine is an anticonvulsant and mood stabilizing drug commonly used to treat epilepsy.

Cotinine is a metabolic byproduct of nicotine. Deet is an insect repellent. Gemfibrozil is a cholesterol medicine. And monensin is a veterinary antibiotic, often used to increase milk production in cows.

All drugs, Jacobsen said, were found at the parts per trillion level - well below any sort of level of health risk to consumers.

"Just because it's there doesn't mean its harmful," she said. "The levels are so small. You get more drugs drinking pasteurized milk."

The six drugs were among dozens tested for in the treated river water, Jacobsen said.

Locally, Chicago found two drugs in its water - a cholesterol medication and a nicotine derivative - both at lower levels than any of the drugs found in Elgin.

Aurora's water contained only gemfibrozil. But Jacobsen noted that Aurora's water tested was composed of 50 percent river water and 50 percent well water.

Elgin's water came entirely from the Fox River.

"If you took our river water, and diluted it by half, I'd conjecture that our levels would be significantly lower," she said.

East St. Louis tested positive for as many as 13 different drugs, all showing significantly higher levels than found in Elgin, the AP study showed. Eight cities tested, including Boston, Phoenix and Seattle, showed no drugs.

Pharmaceuticals found in the water supplies are generally flushed into sewers and waterways through human excretion.

They also get there when people flush old prescriptions down the toilet.

"That's a quick and easy way pharmaceuticals get into the drain," Jacobsen said.

While the comprehensive risks are still unclear, researchers are finding evidence even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild and impair the workings of human cells in laboratories.

Still, Jacobsen said, additional filtration won't likely remove the small levels of chemicals in drinking water.

"Detection levels are so much better now than they were five years ago," she said. "They can detect a drop of medicine in 13 million gallons of water."

Getting residents to stop flushing drugs and cigarettes, Jacobsen said, would have a more significant effect on drinking water than additional filtration.

"We're a very chemical-dependent society," she said. "If everybody would start doing stuff like that, it would be huge."

Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.