An environmental organization may go to court to force regular testing of drinking water in Greene County for arsenic and other dangerous contaminants.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is challenging Pennsylvania's interpretation of a federal law that allows it to grant waivers of such testing.

The national environmental organization yesterday issued a study critical of state and federal agencies for inadequately monitoring air and water pollution in Greene County, where cancer rates are among the highest in the nation.

"We're considering our legal options," Erik Olson, NRDC senior attorney and co-author of the Greene County study, said at a news conference in Pittsburgh yesterday. "We're very concerned about what's happening in Greene County, but this is a statewide problem."

Kathleen McGinty, state Department of Environmental Protection secretary, said she "welcomed the report and is happy to examine the details," but insisted that the state is fully in compliance with federal law.

The NRDC contends the state's blanket waiver based on three years of past test results is illegal because the Clean Air Act also requires states to review the condition of the utility's watershed before deciding if a waiver is appropriate. After the waiver is granted, water utilities aren't required to test again for nine years.

Olson said such testing is needed in Greene County to protect the county's 40,000 residents from a host of pollutants discharged into the air and water.

The NRDC study was also critical of air quality testing in the county. The only county monitor is located in Holbrook, upwind of Allegheny Energy's Hatfield's Ferry coal-fired power plant, and measures only ozone, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, but not nitrogen oxides, soot, lead or any other air toxins.

All six of the county's public water suppliers get their water from the Monongahela River, where utilities and industries are permitted to discharge a host of chemicals, including arsenic, barium, cobalt, manganese and hydrazine, and the water quality can vary widely.

"The rivers get periodic pulses of contamination," Olson said, "and if they don't test, they won't find any problems."