EPA again decides not to regulate chemicals in drinking water

Let's hope under an Obama presidency the EPA will work for the people again, instead of major corporations.

I have never being against the Government. There are a lots of good things the Government do and lots of things they do wrong not because of The Government itself but because of some of the people that runs it.

I agree with Mark701 (& others), there are plenty of good folks in the agency and others who have quit in frustration. Once we get the Bush impediments out of the agency's management ranks we have hope that the EPA will return to its mission of protecting the public.

But, it will happen fastest if we contact out legislators and demand better protection from the EPA.

From the link already provided in the original post, which was not a "rant."

'Some unregulated contaminants were found in the tap water of hundreds of communities, while others were found in very few; some were detected at levels of health concern, while others were not. These differences in the scale and magnitude of exposures can guide priorities when EPA assesses potential mandatory safety standards for these chemicals:

Of the 141 unregulated contaminants found in tap water, 40 were detected in tap water served to at least one million people. while 20 unregulated contaminants were detected in just one system, only one time.

Nineteen unregulated contaminants were detected above health-based limits (EPA 2004b) in tap water served to at least 10,000 people. Forty-eight unregulated contaminants were not detected above health-based limits anywhere, and seventy lack health-based limits, which have yet to be developed by EPA.

The Agency has fallen short in efforts both to require the testing that would reveal what pollutants are in tap water supplies, and to set health-based standards for those that are found. EPA has ignored three mandatory Safe Drinking Water Act deadlines to set standards for unregulated contaminants (EPA 2001a). Nearly twenty percent of the contaminants that EPA is currently considering for regulation have been under study at the Agency for 17 years now, beginning with testing programs initiated in 1988 (EPA 2001b, 2005b).

The agency has also failed to act on its own information showing that increased testing is justified. EPA has required water suppliers to test tap water for approximately 200 unregulated contaminants over the past 30 years (EPA 2001b, 2001c, 2005c, FR 1996 - details). But the Agency's own scientists have identified 600 chemicals in tap water formed as by-products of disinfection (Richardson 1998, 1999a,b, 2003); tracked some 220 million pounds of 650 industrial chemicals discharged to rivers and streams each year (EPA 2003); and spearheaded research on emerging contaminants after the U.S. Geological Survey found 82 unregulated pharmaceuticals and personal care product chemicals in rivers and streams across the country that provide drinking water for millions of Americans (Kolpin et al. 2004, EPA 2005d). All told, EPA has set safety standards for fewer than 20 percent of the many hundreds of chemicals that it has identified in tap water.

Findings

Our investigation reveals major gaps in our system of public health protections when it comes to tap water safety. Federal programs that allocate grants and low-cost loans to prevent water pollution and protect the rivers, streams, and groundwater that we drink are sorely underfunded.

Just 5 percent of $6 billion granted to states under the Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund, went toward mitigating polluted runoff from farms, and urban and sprawl areas, which collectively account for 60 percent of water pollution. And only $2.7 million has been allocated to conserve buffer zones along rivers and streams (1997-2003), over the six-year history of the source water protection program mobilized under the Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving Fund. This initiative has protected just 2,000 acres nationwide, although it is the most significant source water protection program in the history of the Safe Drinking Water Act (TPL and AWWA 2004).

By failing to clean up rivers and reservoirs that provide drinking water for hundreds of millions of Americans, EPA and the Congress have forced water utilities to decontaminate water that is polluted with industrial chemicals, factory farm waste, sewage, pesticides, fertilizer, and sediment.'
end of quote.

I work with the EPA on a daily basis and believe me when I tell you they are as pissed as everyone else about these things. These actions DO NOT represent the attitude of the EPA as a whole but rather the Bush cronies who were installed to subvert the entire agency.

Monitoring chemicals in the water more closely could lead to the main sources of the pollution. We would not want that would we, big industries/corporate conglomerates being accountable? So, the EPA is in their control, like the FDA, USDA, etc... Food, water, air, land, all polluted by money/power grabbing corps that are in control! We are puppet slaves. Free enterprise at its worst!

First rule for anyone who works for the EPA is they can only drink tap water the entire time the work there, second that they either have kids to worry about getting sick for the toxins in the water, or if the don’t have kids that they at least have a soul

Dont these people that work for the epa have family or friends they care about. We need an independent agency to monitor our air, food and water

cool, i've been feeling like i haven't been getting enough poison with my water!)

i love when we live in a world where people argue about how much poison should be in our drinking water...viva la 21st century!

When I began to educate myself about runoff from; toxins such as pesticides, industrial waste & chemicals which are dumped into our water, even chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and many, many sources, (even household chemicals we throw down the drain... (basically water contamination 101; an education beginning back in 80's) I realized then it was important to drink filtered water. Now today, more people = more contamination.....and unfortunately, most folks don't seem to really care.

Our bodies and the earth @ 80% water (depending upon the source % may fluctuate some), however, I feel it should be contaminate free...but hey~ that's just me.....

if they did regulate it it would cost more to test it and treat it then the water bills would go up and then there would be a whole new slew of issues and complaints......just be glad you arent drinking from a muddy hole in the ground.

I'm not really worried about this, but I am somewhat terrified after reading the "Cost of Empire" post (see link above). Maybe they just don't have the money to test everything because it's all being spent on the military.

Absolutely. And boiling it after filtering it if you intend to use it to make iced tea or other drinks isn't a bad idea either. But filters are definitely the better and more economical way to go, and better for the environment.

Then the obvious solution is to advertise putting more filters on the faucets instead of turning to bottled water since more regulations have been ruled out.

I thought the same thing. Wouldn't be surprising to know that the bottled water lobby is in bed with the EPA. Monsanto is in bed with the FDA and the USDA regarding Gm foods as well... and the bottled water industry has been losing profits over the past couple of years due to more consumers becoming aware of the scam they are pulling regarding bottled water being no better than tap water and actually less regulated. However, there is no doubt the water that comes out of our taps could be more regulated, but it is also fact that municipal water supplies are indeed better and more stringently regulated than the bottled water industry.

I'm betting the bottled water lobby had a lot to do with that decision since they stand to make a whole lot on it so they could afford to do whatever they could to convince the EPA what they should do.

I personally get all my water out of a garden hose so I make sure I have a good filter on the tap and change it enough to make it efficient in screening out impurities.

The way I look at it, with pharmaceuticals at the price they are, the contaminants in the water are just free prescriptions!

Here is what Thomas said...

"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson

just add in "water they drink"

they are trying to kill us slowly, they dont want people to live much past 65, otherwise they have to pay them their social security and medicare benefits, which cost them money