Feds slow to act on drugs in water
A U.S. Senate subcommittee plans to meet tomorrow to discuss trace levels of pharmaceuticals in the nation’s drinking water. The Associated Press found medications in the water supplies of at least 24 major metropolitan areas, including Northern New Jersey.
But a White House task force that was supposed to come up with a federal plan to address this issue has missed a deadline, reports the AP, which has a former Environmental Protection Agency biologist saying Congress first ordered the EPA to act on this issue 12 years ago.
Officials from the EPA and U.S. Geological Survey are expected to testify at tomorrow’s hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. From the AP:
The hearing could produce a showdown between committee members and EPA officials.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who heads the committee, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., chairman of the Transportation, Safety, Infrastructure Security and Water Quality Subcommittee, wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on March 18 asking what the agency plans to do to address concerns about pharmaceuticals in water. The EPA had not responded, a Senate staff member said Friday.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
As I’ve always expected, the idea the federal government is going to address the problems of pollutants and dangerous contaminants (including pharmaceuticals) appearing increasingly frequently in our water supplies.
But here’s the rub — with the EPA regulating only 91 drinking water contaminants currently, and a time lag of 5-10 years to get a potential contaminant onto the regulated list, there is simply no way to count on the goverment to address this problem.
Further, while I believe our goverment is monstrously too large, trying to tackle this issue would require huge spending increases. And for what? Less than .2% of water pumped from your municipal system is used for consumption. We can’t get a pot-hole filled and you expect government is going to address this problem?
There is only one solution and that is self-taxation. OK, a little bit of twist there, but the tax burden you would bear if the goverment wanted to address this will cost you FAR MORE than solving the problem yourself. Bummer you would have to, it was the crappy policing of industry that led to huge pollution problems to begin with. But what about drugs in the water? Just remember everyone lives downstream from someone else. And same for our animal and plant friends in the environment - they too are taking in these chemicals. Is it any wonder bees are suffering major declines, frogs are becomming hermaphroditic, male fish are devloping female parts - and we wonder why there are so many advertisements for male potency drugs. Maybe all these years of drugs and chemicals in the water are making mice out of men?!? (And yes, this problem didn’t “just” appear - you know its been going on for a very long time.)
The best solution, of course, is a robustly designed system capable of removing all contaminants, no matter if they are drugs, industrial chemicals, naturally occuring problem contaminants like arsenic or radioactive isotopes, etc. The only company I know making a home drinking water filter [purification system] capable of getting out ALL the possible nasty stuff is
Pure Water Systems, Inc.. Every other system we’ve looked at will leave you exposed to one thing or another. So if you want a truly robust solution you should strongly consider this company’s products.