NEW YORK .Regulatory and water system data analyzed by The New York Times show that more than 49 million people in the US have consumed polluted drinking water since 2004, according to a report in the December 8 print edition of The New York Times.
Pollutants of concern included concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as bacteria often found in sewage, the report said.
Analyzing data from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulators and water systems, the New York Times reported: .More than 20 percent of the nation.s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data..
Fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials. According to the article, which quoted current and former EPA enforcement officials who wished to remain anonymous, federal regulators were informed of violations, but in many cases, unless the violations would make sensational news stories or target big money, pursuing the violations were overlooked.
EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy, in response to questions regarding the agency.s drinking water enforcement, told the New York Times: .This administration has made it clear that clean water is a top priority. The previous eight years provide a perfect example of what happens when political leadership fails to act to protect our health and the environment..
The article also noted that drinking water contaminants .are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year..
In response to the article, Water Quality Association (WQA) Executive Director Peter J. Censky said in a December 8 association statement, .Filtering systems in the home provide the highest technology available to treat drinking water. Home filtering systems act as a final contaminant barrier and can further purify water for drinking.. WQA is urging the public to consider installing home treatment systems.
- Tuesday, December 08, 2009 http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=73069
This Los Angeles reservoir contained chemicals that sunlight converted to compounds associated with cancer. The city used plastic balls to block the sun, but nearby homeowners asked why, if the water didn't violate the law. The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks . and still be legal.
Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.
But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.
Other recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known. However, many of the act.s standards for those chemicals have not been updated since the 1980s, and some remain essentially unchanged since the law was passed in 1974.
All told, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease, according to an analysis by The Times of more than 19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available.
In some cases, people have been exposed for years to water that did not meet those guidelines.
But because such guidelines were never incorporated into the Safe Drinking Water Act, the vast majority of that water never violated the law.
Some officials overseeing local water systems have tried to go above and beyond what is legally required. But they have encountered resistance, sometimes from the very residents they are trying to protect, who say that if their water is legal it must be safe.
Dr. Pankaj Parekh, director of the water quality division for the City of Los Angeles, has faced such criticism. The water in some city reservoirs has contained contaminants that become likely cancer-causing compounds when exposed to sunlight.
To stop the carcinogens from forming, the city covered the surface of reservoirs, including one in the upscale neighborhood of Silver Lake, with a blanket of black plastic balls that blocked the sun.
Then complaints started from owners of expensive houses around the reservoir. .They supposedly discovered these chemicals, and then they ruined the reservoir by putting black pimples all over it,. said Laurie Pepper, whose home overlooks the manmade lake. .If the water is so dangerous, why can.t they tell us what laws it.s violated?.
Dr. Parekh has struggled to make his case. .People don.t understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks,. he said. .And so we encounter opposition that can become very personal..
Some federal regulators have tried to help officials like Dr. Parekh by pushing to tighten drinking water standards for chemicals like industrial solvents, as well as a rocket fuel additive that has polluted drinking water sources in Southern California and elsewhere. But those efforts have often been blocked by industry lobbying.
Drinking water that does not meet a federal health guideline will not necessarily make someone ill. Many contaminants are hazardous only if consumed for years. And some researchers argue that even toxic chemicals, when consumed at extremely low doses over long periods, pose few risks. Others argue that the cost of removing minute concentrations of chemicals from drinking water does not equal the benefits.
Moreover, many of the thousands of chemicals that have not been analyzed may be harmless. And researchers caution that such science is complicated, often based on extrapolations from animal studies, and sometimes hard to apply nationwide, particularly given that more than 57,400 water systems in this country each deliver, essentially, a different glass of water every day.
Government scientists now generally agree, however, that many chemicals commonly found in drinking water pose serious risks at low concentrations.
- New York Times 12/17/2009 - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html
More than 20 percent of the nation.s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.
That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.
Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.
Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.
In some instances, drinking water violations were one-time events, and probably posed little risk. But for hundreds of other systems, illegal contamination persisted for years, records show.
On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will question a high-ranking E.P.A. official about the agency.s enforcement of drinking-water safety laws. The E.P.A. is expected to announce a new policy for how it polices the nation.s 54,700 water systems.
.This administration has made it clear that clean water is a top priority,. said an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Adora Andy, in response to questions regarding the agency.s drinking water enforcement. The E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, this year announced a wide-ranging overhaul of enforcement of the Clean Water Act, which regulates pollution into waterways.
.The previous eight years provide a perfect example of what happens when political leadership fails to act to protect our health and the environment,. Ms. Andy added.
Water pollution has become a growing concern for some lawmakers as government oversight of polluters has waned. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, in 2007 asked the E.P.A. for data on Americans. exposure to some contaminants in drinking water.
The New York Times has compiled and analyzed millions of records from water systems and regulators around the nation, as part of a series of articles about worsening pollution in American waters, and regulators. response.
An analysis of E.P.A. data shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in parts of every state. In the prosperous town of Ramsey, N.J., for instance, drinking water tests since 2004 have detected illegal concentrations of arsenic, a carcinogen, and the dry cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, which has also been linked to cancer.
In New York state, 205 water systems have broken the law by delivering tap water that contained illegal amounts of bacteria since 2004.
However, almost none of those systems were ever punished. Ramsey was not fined for its water violations, for example, though a Ramsey official said that filtration systems have been installed since then. In New York, only three water systems were penalized for bacteria violations, according to federal data.
The problem, say current and former government officials, is that enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act has not been a federal priority.
.There is significant reluctance within the E.P.A. and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there.s a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers,. said David Uhlmann, who headed the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department until 2007.
.But some systems won.t come into compliance unless they are forced to,. added Mr. Uhlmann, who now teaches at the University of Michigan law school. .And sometimes a court order is the only way to get local governments to spend what is needed..
A half-dozen current and former E.P.A. officials said in interviews that they tried to prod the agency to enforce the drinking-water law, but found little support.
.I proposed drinking water cases, but they got shut down so fast that I.ve pretty much stopped even looking at the violations,. said one longtime E.P.A. enforcement official who, like others, requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. .The top people want big headlines and million-dollar settlements. That.s not drinking-water cases..
The majority of drinking water violations since 2004 have occurred at water systems serving fewer than 20,000 residents, where resources and managerial expertise are often in short supply.
It is unclear precisely how many American illnesses are linked to contaminated drinking water. Many of the most dangerous contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act have been tied to diseases like cancer that can take years to develop.
By Charles Duhigg, Dec 7th, 2009 New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html
