FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A national environmental group says state data show that the amount of arsenic in the drinking water supplies of more than 60 rural Texas communities exceeds the federal safety limit.
The Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project released a report Monday saying the state needs to better warn Texans about the risks of exposure to arsenic, a naturally occurring carcinogen.
The group says it used statistics collected by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates the state’s groundwater.
The commission confirmed that 65 communities’ water exceeded the federal limit, most of them in West Texas and near the Gulf Coast. But the agency says all but two are “under enforcement” by the state or federal government, meaning the operators of those communities’ water systems have been ordered to implement better filters.
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