Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show

[groovedaddy]

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[reign100]

1. I heard about this

on NPR this morning. It is my understanding that the NYT was going to print a list of known areas affected at some point in the near future.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. See Also…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=220803&mesg_id=220803

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. I am less worried about the violators being fined or punished,

particularly for one-time events, than about the problems not being fixed.

[reign100]

4. And that's where the problem likely lies

What is at the root cause of the failure, and is this something we can expect to get progressively worse? Do we lack the resources currently to monitor, and more importantly achieve the goal of clean water across the country?

Is it due to an aging and failing infrastructure? To much stress on the system from over-population? Corruption? So many questions and I feel not many honest answers. This is one problem that needs to have priority, it's somewhat hard to live without drinking water.

Between that and the power grid issues my head starts to hurt.