Has your hair turned a bit green after a shower? Does your pasta taste like pennies? If so, you might want to let your water run for about a minute before using it — chances are your home's water system is one of those in the village that is experiencing high copper levels.

Last week, Village of Ellenville officials took out a half-page ad in the Ellenville Journal notifying residents of the Ulster County Health Department's findings of higher copper levels than the state allows, which requires that 90% of all sample homes tested have amounts of copper at or below 1.3 milligrams per liter. According to the ad, samples collected in the village contained under 2.3 milligrams per liter, resulting in a violation in January. Village Manager Elliott Auerbach says that he found out about the violation within the last thirty days, and once he did, he began the process of notifying village residents of the issue, culminating in last week's advertisement.

Dean Palen of Ulster County's Department of Health explains that village officials have acted in accordance with state and county requirements on this matter in terms of notifying the public, and that despite the inconvenience of high copper levels in water, there's not too much to be worried about.

"In general, the good news about copper is your body recognizes it as a heavy metal and gets rid of it," says Palen. "It's not like lead where it would bio-accumulate."

Still, as last week's notice explains, those with Wilson's disease, a condition affecting 1 out of every 100 people, should consult a doctor since the disease causes a buildup of copper in the body. Furthermore, some people may "experience gastrointestinal distress" — also known as a stomachache — and that if high amounts of copper are consumed over many years, kidney or liver damage can occur. How can this be avoided? The solution, it seems, is simple: run your water for 30 to 60 seconds. This advice is listed in last week's notice, and is echoed by Palen, who explains the reason for the water's high copper-levels in the first place.

"The water there — whether it's the North Valley Reservoir or some of the high-production wells that are fairly shallow — tends to have what's called low-alkalinity and hardness, and therefore the water is somewhat corrosive," says Palen. "With some adjustments to the chemistry of the water, we can make the water less corrosive, and hopefully then they would be in compliance with the standard for copper."

According to Auerbach, the village has submitted a corrosion control plan to the county which will hopefully change the water's chemistry in such a way as to bring copper levels back down to its required level.

"It's my recollection that [the village] had tried in the past to use zinc organophosphate to coat the pipes such that there would be a barrier between what is somewhat corrosive water and the raw copper pipes that service most homes," says Palen. "That has worked very well in some supplies, not as well in others… [Village engineers Barton and Loguidice] have a proposal pending before us whereby there would be some chemical adjustment of the water in an effort to give it greater buffering capacity, and hopefully prevent the copper from going into solution from the pipes. This is not a source problem; it's really a service-line problem with the homes and businesses in the village."

"I think the village has been proactive in putting the required notice out. Their consultant has a proposal here at the department which, I think, we hope to approve very soon, and then they'll move forward with this chemical adjustment to the water such that down the road people won't have to do this flushing, because clearly when we get into a drought cycle or something, every drop is precious, so we're not looking to continue that. But for the short run, that is certainly a very appropriate response to the numbers we're seeing."

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