U.S. Neglecting Clean Water Laws, To Scary Results
Today's lesson in who Is trying to kill you takes us to municipal water supplies, where violations of the nation's Clean Water Act have now become rampant. According to a harrowing report by the New York Times, polluters have violated the act over a half million times in the last five years, dumping heavy metals (lead, nickel) and other dangerous chemicals into the water, usually without recourse.
What's a half million to you?
In the nation's largest dairy states, like Wisconsin and California, farmers have sprayed liquefied animal feces onto fields, where it has seeped into wells, causing severe infections. Tap water in parts of the Farm Belt, including cities in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana, has contained pesticides at concentrations that some scientists have linked to birth defects and fertility problems.
In parts of New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, California and other states where sewer systems cannot accommodate heavy rains, untreated human waste has flowed into rivers and washed onto beaches. Drinking water in parts of New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts shows some of the highest concentrations of tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent that has been linked to kidney damage and cancer.
It's worth pointing out that the Times got the half million figure by counting reports submitted by polluters themselves; it includes only instances of polluting that companies admit to. So the actual number is bound to be higher.
What's more, according to the Times research, "fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials."
Parts of West Virginia are so bad that bottled water for drinking and bathing has to be trucked in. Only in America can you find 20 different brands of "green" detergent in grocery stores while lacking safe tap water.
Related: How To Get Clean Tap Water
Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering [The New York Times]
(Photo: Barbara Doduk)
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Comments:
I wonder how much of that crud can be removed by distilling water?
I am sure someone will attempt to claim that this is totally ok and scientists are just over reacting. Or we can't possibly do something because it will hurt the feelings of some corporate interest.
How can that be since Congress solved the problem with legislation!
Didn't we all decide, long ago, that "business always knows best," and that regulations (environmental and otherwise) are merely malicious hurdles thrown up on the road to Great Profits by spiteful governments and bureaucrats?
Please don't assume that the scary half million number means that in exactly 500,000 cases, scheming polluters caused toxic contamination that was callously disregarded by uncaring bureaucrats.
The Times story was mostly a nice piece of journalism, and important and newsworthy and likely will result in positive changes. But I wasn't able to find in it a specific reference to how many of those half million violations are purely administrative, which the story itself noted was part of the total.
Being a former journalist, I know this is one of the tricks of the trade ... a violation is a violation, so you put them in the lede no matter whether they're serious or not to amp up the impact, then put the real number ... the number of violations that we should REALLY worry about ... somewhere down low.
I never found that number, although I'll confess I was reading the story while walking the dog and didn't make it all the way to the bitter end.
I suspect many, many, many of those violations were of the paper-pushing variety only. I'm not saying those should be overlooked, because it's only by way of that paper that we mere mortals can determine whether our water is safe. But it's a whole nuther matter than Dick Dastardly pouring drums of glowing green waste into the water reservoir while Joe Waterplantguy counts his cash.
Whatever you do, don't follow Canada's lead on this.
One word of advice: A high school diploma alone probably doesn't qualify you to run an entire city's water system. Sure, you might not need a PhD, but when your credentials consist of zero training, you have a problem.
And that problem isn't going to be fixed by a law, which the US appears to be trying to prove. It's only going to be fixed by vigilant citizens and proper oversight organizations.
Can't drink tap water, cant drink bottled water. Only thing left is bourbon.
This is classic caremongering. "Drinking water in parts of New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts shows some of the highest concentrations of tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent that has been linked to kidney damage and cancer." Note that they don't tell you the concentrations at which the solvent becomes dangerous, or even that the tap water was above or near those limits, just that they have the highest concentrations. Well if it takes 100 PPM (parts per million) to kill you and there's only 5 PPM then there's not much to worry about, even if every other state has 4PPM.
STOP THE SCAREMONGERING.
@Vandelay Import Export: I know it's part snark, but the last administration simply decided it would only enforce the laws it agreed with and either failed to enforce or created an extreme interpretation of all the laws it didn't like to let business do what it wanted. So, laws require enforcement.
...farmers have sprayed liquefied animal feces onto fields, where it has seeped into wells, causing severe infections.
Now, now. It's called "organic farming."
@Orv: Sure sure. When farmers do it, it's called "organic farming." When I do it, it's called "vandalizing the neighbor's property."
Why does *all* our tap water need to be treated to be potable standards when so little of it is actually ingested? Most of it goes down toilets and shower/tub drains, on to lawns, and into the laundry.
You know, if the states actually sought those fines they're entitled to (not to mention doing their duty of protecting their citizens), maybe they wouldn't be in such economic strife right now.
@PsiCop: Under a common-law situation, without any particular government regulation, individuals whose water had been polluted could take the polluters to court directly. Adding formal regulation, which usually comes with the rider that only the government can take action, only helps if the relevant politicians are getting enough opportunity to grandstand about enforcement actions.
@bohemian: All of it could be removed by distilling water, however that is not a very energy efficient process.
Just for reference, the Clean Water Act covers rivers & streams. The Safe Drinking Water Act covers tap water.
And not all violations will be anything serious. Our local water just had to issue another notice of violation. They were over on THMs for 1 quarter. Over the limit of 80 parts per billion (ppb). They hit 84 ppb. Wow.... 4 drops of water in 84 BILLION.
And even THAT is not all based on the drinking water itself. A part of the calculations are based on the levels in the river, even if the tap water is fine.
@harvey_birdman:
Well, when you consider the average dose of many pharmeceuticals provide many drastic biological changes at lower doses I would be concerned. As example one dose:
Cialis at 30 parts per BILLION.
Paxil at 30 parts per BILLION.
Albuterol at 2.1 parts per BILLION.
Nuvaring at .035 parts per BILLION is effective contraceptive.
@shepd:
Agree with the somment on qualifications but... Walkerton is not exactly a city and that is part of what went wrong there (underqualified AND faking/hiding the numbers). A larger municipality has qualified scientists and engineers for the water treatment facilities and a really large one has multiple microbiologists.
How many small-to-medium towns in the US and elsewhere have the same problem with staff qualifications?
@brettbee:
Because there's only one pipe going into everyone's house and adding more means ripping up the entire city, and ripping into the walls of every house, everywhere.
That's pretty much the issue in a nutshell.
@Applekid: if you make it out back .. well a still is a distillery right? so i think that people should get compensation in the form of the means to make moonshine!
@chrylis: I'm sure neighboring farmers or families would have absolutely no problem winning a court case against a multibillion-dollar heavy-polluting global corporation.
How come noone's said that they were going to make their own water at home?
@bohemian: some of the minerals in drinking water are actually beneficial, but distilling also removes all the good minerals from the water, aside from taking a lot of energy to perform, so it isn't really a good option.
@rickhamilton620: It's easy if you buy my Instant Water (TM). Just take a cup of Instant Water (TM) and just add water!
@dadelus: Well, if Applekid spun his posterior around in a slow, even clockwise motion while he was "fertilizing", I don't see how anyone can complain then!
@greeneyedguru: Depends how long you have to wait for it. Solar distillation requires no man-made energy and works quite well. Ain't fast.
@Mecharine: That's why I have a heavy wine stash -- hurricane supplies. When you can't drink the water, you can definitely the wine.
@Trai_Dep: Dammit!! That explains it then. He was going counter-clockwise. It's always some stupid technicality!
@GinaLouise: Haven't you heard ... ordinary folks out in the midwest have no problem successfully suing a multibillion-dollar conglomerate like Conagra? Try it sometime, it's easy!!!
... Not! ...
@nybiker: I suppose if anyone can truthfully say "We make our own water at home," it's us. We have our own well, and live in a forested area at the summit of a hill, several hundred feet from our closest neighbor, whose yard is also forested, so gravity won't be likely to draw contaminants into our water.
(Yes, I know, underground aquifers can move contaminants across surprisingly long distances, so I'm not saying our well-water is impervious to contamination, just that the odds of it happening to us are about as small as they could possibly be.)
All the regulations in the world don't mean jack if they're not aggressively enforced.