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City working to reduce copper in drinking water

For a more than year now the City of Benson has been working to get the amount of copper in its drinking water down to a level that the Minnesota Department of Health says is safe under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
A study of the city’s water at 20 different <img src="/sites found that at 10 of them copper levels were above federal standards. The most likely cause of high copper levels comes from corrosion of household plumbing systems.
The same study found that lead levels in the city’s water supply at all 20 testing <img src="/sites were below the federal limits. A copy of that study can be found on Page 7B of this week’s Monitor-News.
Benson is actively taking steps to reduce the amount of copper in its water.
The human body has a natural mechanism for maintaining the proper level of copper in it, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) says. However, children under one year old have not yet developed this mechanism and, as a result, are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of copper, it says.
People with Wilson’s disease also have a problem with maintaining the proper balance and should also exercise particular care in limiting exposure to copper, MDH states.
To read more on this story and view the water study, pick up a copy of the Monitor-News at our office; or subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!
 

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