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Murphy’s Law, written by Barbara Murphy, appears monthly in The Golden Times. The column represents the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of the publisher.
Clean Drinking Water Is Serious Problem Getting Too Little Attention
“Black mayonnaise.”
Cancer-causing chemicals.
E-coli contamination.
These are just a few of the scores of lethal substances that are contaminating our drinking water, which we like to think is the purest in the world.
The truth is, our water supply is facing a crisis and among the first tasks the new Congress should take on is strengthening the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and upgrading the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Though clean drinking water is absolutely essential to life, neither presidential candidate so much as mentioned the topic in the run-up to the election.
I’ll admit I didn’t think much about water quality either until I read Alex Prud’homme’s new book “The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century.” (As an aside, Mr. Prud’homme and his great aunt Julia Child collaborated on her memoirs “My Life In France.)
The first section of “The Ripple Effect,” dealing with water quality, left me reeling. The book opened with a murder — that of Geetha Angara, a well-liked 43-year-old hydrochemist whose body was found at the bottom of a Passaic Valley (NJ) Water Commission plant.
In 2004, the plant underwent a $70 million upgrade. Dr. Angara had been promoted to senior chemist and given the job of making sure the upgrade met water quality standards set by the EPA. A colleague recalled that during the plant’s rededication Dr. Angara was “in such a fabulous mood, but other people around her weren’t.”
The chemist’s death was ruled a homicide but who killed her and why still remain a mystery. Just as disturbing is the fact that her body wasn’t discovered until a day and a half after her death. Fearful of contamination, plant administrators ordered the entire 1 million gallon tank drained.
Mr. Prud’homme rightly asks: “Why would someone murder a respected hydrochemist? Did it have anything to do with the quality of water at the plant, which reportedly had a record of 55 health and safety violations? Did Dr. Angara blow a whistle on a colleague?”
One of the most unsettling questions arising around Dr. Angara’s death was how a body could enter the drinking water supply of one of the nation’s most densely populated regions and remain undetected for a day and a half. The answer was that the sensor in the tank designed to warn of any change in water displacement wasn’t working.
The issues raised by Dr. Angara’s murder have forced some people — and should force us all — to worry about the safety of our drinking water supply and how vulnerable it is to contamination of all types.
Considering the ease with which someone pushed Dr. Angara into the tank shows how easy it would be for terrorists to break into any public water tank anywhere and lace the water with cyanide or some other deadly poison. But sadly we don’t have to wait for terrorists. We do a fine job of polluting our water without any help from jihadists.
For instance, chemical residue from antibacterial soap disrupts the endocrine system of fish, leaving them vulnerable to disease and death. Mr. Prud’homme notes that such “endocrine disruptors” are also found in children’s toys, cosmetics, furniture and weed killers.
Which brings us to “black mayonnaise.” This is what the neighbors called the sludge of contaminants that floated down Newtown Creek (in the heart of New York City) after a huge explosion rocked Greenpoint in Brooklyn on Oct. 5, 1950. Mr. Prud’homme said that city investigators concluded that the explosion had been caused by petroleum and other industrial pollutants that had leaked from storage bunkers or had been deliberately poured into the neighborhood’s soil and water. The stuff had pooled underground and spontaneously combusted.
After the 1950 explosion, petroleum continued to taint much of the water and land in Greenpoint. By 2010, the oil spill beneath Brooklyn was estimated to contain at least 17 million to 30 million gallons of hydrocarbons and other toxic compounds in pockets up to 20 feet deep. According to Mr. Prud’homme, the “black mayonnaise” goop is comprised of hydrocarbons, industrial solvents and associated chemicals such as naphtha, the chemical after which napalm is named. Today, he said, more than 100 homes and dozens of businesses have been built near or on top of the oil plume.
Chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and scores of other serious health problems are dumped into our drinking water in increasing volume and regularity. Some of these chemicals are benzene (a known carcinogen), toxic metals such as copper and zinc, and compounds oozing from gas plants, asphalt companies, hazardous waste plants and paint manufacturers.
By 1920, Mr. Prud’homme said, most American cities had efficient water treatment systems. But in the 1950s and 60s, he said, “Americans consumed with sending rockets to the moon and coping with the social turmoil of the Vietnam War paid little attention to what they were pouring into our waterways.”
Federal guidelines ban 28 chemicals but environmental regulation has been left mostly to the states which, according to Mr. Prud’homme, are more interested in attracting jobs than in policing industrial and agricultural polluters.
Industry creates new chemicals everyday. And they are dumped in the water supply without any test to determine their toxicity. Waste from huge agribusinesses and small farms alike continues to flood into our waterways, creating “deadzones” where nothing can live. Agricultural runoff laced with animal waste and pesticides continues to create an enormous danger to the ecosystem and human life. Polluted runoff of manure-laden farm water has been blamed for the outbreak of deadly E-coli illness.
The EPA has instituted special rules to regulate agricultural runoff but the rules are ignored or deliberately violated. According to Mr. Prud’homme, the agricultural lobby has blocked efforts to regulate runoff that causes water pollution. So the lobbyists are the winners and the American people are the losers.
The water quality crisis — and it is a crisis — is worsened by the fact that most of the nation’s sewer systems are old and crumbling and in desperate need of replacement.
We can only hope that the new Congress will not follow the path of the presidential candidates and ignore the water crisis but will instead find the political will to address the water quality problems.
*
Barbara Murphy, 80, writes about controversial issues each month.
“Black mayonnaise.”
Cancer-causing chemicals.
E-coli contamination.
These are just a few of the scores of lethal substances that are contaminating our drinking water, which we like to think is the purest in the world.
The truth is, our water supply is facing a crisis and among the first tasks the new Congress should take on is strengthening the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and upgrading the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Though clean drinking water is absolutely essential to life, neither presidential candidate so much as mentioned the topic in the run-up to the election.
I’ll admit I didn’t think much about water quality either until I read Alex Prud’homme’s new book “The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century.” (As an aside, Mr. Prud’homme and his great aunt Julia Child collaborated on her memoirs “My Life In France.)
The first section of “The Ripple Effect,” dealing with water quality, left me reeling. The book opened with a murder — that of Geetha Angara, a well-liked 43-year-old hydrochemist whose body was found at the bottom of a Passaic Valley (NJ) Water Commission plant.
In 2004, the plant underwent a $70 million upgrade. Dr. Angara had been promoted to senior chemist and given the job of making sure the upgrade met water quality standards set by the EPA. A colleague recalled that during the plant’s rededication Dr. Angara was “in such a fabulous mood, but other people around her weren’t.”
The chemist’s death was ruled a homicide but who killed her and why still remain a mystery. Just as disturbing is the fact that her body wasn’t discovered until a day and a half after her death. Fearful of contamination, plant administrators ordered the entire 1 million gallon tank drained.
Mr. Prud’homme rightly asks: “Why would someone murder a respected hydrochemist? Did it have anything to do with the quality of water at the plant, which reportedly had a record of 55 health and safety violations? Did Dr. Angara blow a whistle on a colleague?”
One of the most unsettling questions arising around Dr. Angara’s death was how a body could enter the drinking water supply of one of the nation’s most densely populated regions and remain undetected for a day and a half. The answer was that the sensor in the tank designed to warn of any change in water displacement wasn’t working.
The issues raised by Dr. Angara’s murder have forced some people — and should force us all — to worry about the safety of our drinking water supply and how vulnerable it is to contamination of all types.
Considering the ease with which someone pushed Dr. Angara into the tank shows how easy it would be for terrorists to break into any public water tank anywhere and lace the water with cyanide or some other deadly poison. But sadly we don’t have to wait for terrorists. We do a fine job of polluting our water without any help from jihadists.
For instance, chemical residue from antibacterial soap disrupts the endocrine system of fish, leaving them vulnerable to disease and death. Mr. Prud’homme notes that such “endocrine disruptors” are also found in children’s toys, cosmetics, furniture and weed killers.
Which brings us to “black mayonnaise.” This is what the neighbors called the sludge of contaminants that floated down Newtown Creek (in the heart of New York City) after a huge explosion rocked Greenpoint in Brooklyn on Oct. 5, 1950. Mr. Prud’homme said that city investigators concluded that the explosion had been caused by petroleum and other industrial pollutants that had leaked from storage bunkers or had been deliberately poured into the neighborhood’s soil and water. The stuff had pooled underground and spontaneously combusted.
After the 1950 explosion, petroleum continued to taint much of the water and land in Greenpoint. By 2010, the oil spill beneath Brooklyn was estimated to contain at least 17 million to 30 million gallons of hydrocarbons and other toxic compounds in pockets up to 20 feet deep. According to Mr. Prud’homme, the “black mayonnaise” goop is comprised of hydrocarbons, industrial solvents and associated chemicals such as naphtha, the chemical after which napalm is named. Today, he said, more than 100 homes and dozens of businesses have been built near or on top of the oil plume.
Chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and scores of other serious health problems are dumped into our drinking water in increasing volume and regularity. Some of these chemicals are benzene (a known carcinogen), toxic metals such as copper and zinc, and compounds oozing from gas plants, asphalt companies, hazardous waste plants and paint manufacturers.
By 1920, Mr. Prud’homme said, most American cities had efficient water treatment systems. But in the 1950s and 60s, he said, “Americans consumed with sending rockets to the moon and coping with the social turmoil of the Vietnam War paid little attention to what they were pouring into our waterways.”
Federal guidelines ban 28 chemicals but environmental regulation has been left mostly to the states which, according to Mr. Prud’homme, are more interested in attracting jobs than in policing industrial and agricultural polluters.
Industry creates new chemicals everyday. And they are dumped in the water supply without any test to determine their toxicity. Waste from huge agribusinesses and small farms alike continues to flood into our waterways, creating “deadzones” where nothing can live. Agricultural runoff laced with animal waste and pesticides continues to create an enormous danger to the ecosystem and human life. Polluted runoff of manure-laden farm water has been blamed for the outbreak of deadly E-coli illness.
The EPA has instituted special rules to regulate agricultural runoff but the rules are ignored or deliberately violated. According to Mr. Prud’homme, the agricultural lobby has blocked efforts to regulate runoff that causes water pollution. So the lobbyists are the winners and the American people are the losers.
The water quality crisis — and it is a crisis — is worsened by the fact that most of the nation’s sewer systems are old and crumbling and in desperate need of replacement.
We can only hope that the new Congress will not follow the path of the presidential candidates and ignore the water crisis but will instead find the political will to address the water quality problems.
*
Barbara Murphy, 80, writes about controversial issues each month.