As Copenhagen Conference Begins, America Finally Takes a Look at all the Pollutants in the Nation's Water System

GREEN IS GOOD
by Margaret Smith

With the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference well under way, it seems that the U.S. government has put environmental issues at the forefront of the national debate. Their newest project is an in-depth look at the nation's water system, with yesterday's hearing in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about federal drinking water programs and a scheduled hearing tomorrow in the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on "Drinking Water and Public Health Impacts of Coal Combustion Waste Disposal."

Yesterday's Senate hearing found committee members questioning Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials on their enforcement of drinking water safety laws. Sen. Frank R. Lautenburg (D-NJ) made a point to note that there are more than 140 potentially dangerous chemicals found in U.S. drinking water that the EPA does not regulate, including gas additives, pesticides and rocket fuel.

"It does not take rocket scientist to figure out that you should not be drinking rocket fuel," he said.

The EPA used the hearing to unveil their new plan to improve the quality of water in schools and small communities, targeting the areas that need the most help to meet federal standards. Committee members recognized the need for such a plan, although many said that they were still unclear how the EPA planned to proceed.

"Kids are being exposed to these contaminants, and they are deadly," said Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA). "I need a lot more specificity from you. I'm not confident that we are ready to go."

Tomorrow's hearing in the House will examine safe drinking water and current practices for disposing coal fly ash, the ash left over after the combustion of coal. The subcommittee will hear from a panel of experts, including a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a program manager from the Electric Power Research Institute, to name a few.

The nation seems due for an overhaul of its water system after being faced with a multitude of instances in which Americans have been exposed to unsafe drinking water supplies.

Last year's Kingston fly ash spill certainly put the issue into perspective, dumping more than 5 million yards of cubic ash over the eastern half of Tennessee. The coal ash was quickly removed, but the after effects still remain. A report released by the Environmental Integrity Project on Tuesday found that the Kingston spill dumped more heavy metals in the Emory River than all the power plants discharged into all the nation's water the year before. The report found that the Kingston spill discharged 2.66 million pounds worth of 10 different heavy metals that are present in coal ash. In 2007, the power industry discharged 204 pounds nationwide.

What's more, a recent New York Times report found that more than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Water Drinking Act over the last five years, providing more than 49 million people with unsanitary drinking water. According to the EPA, since 2005 more than three million Americans have been exposed to drinking water with illegal concentrations of arsenic and radioactive elements like uranium.

Some of these instances were one-time occurrences. Others, however, persisted for a number of years. In worst case scenarios, the amount of radium detected in certain areas was 2,000 percent higher than the legal limit.

It's still unclear how many American illnesses are directly linked to contaminated drinking water, but scientific research indicates 19 million Americans may become ill each year just due to the parasites, viruses and bacteria found in normal drinking water. The rates of certain types of cancer, such as breast and prostate cancer, have also risen in the past 30 years, and research shows that this could be tied to certain pollutants found in drinking water.

What may be more shocking, though, is the lack of regulatory action against water companies. Over the last five years, only 6 percent of water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by federal or state officials, including those at the EPA. And according to the EPA's Web site, the maximum penalty allotted for violating such a law is only $25,000, a small fraction of what many large water companies make on a regular basis.

According to The New York Times, the problem has been a lack of support in the government:

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 EPA 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.”

Hopefully the Climate Change Conference will help America how to fix more than global warming, because right now it seems the richest nation in the world can't even provide its citizens with clean drinking water.

GREEN IS GOOD

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