The Battle for Clean Water: Regulate or Capitulate |
Effluent pipe from a pulp mill draining into the Willamette River. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
Humans can survive for a rather astounding one to three months without food and in one case, a stunning 382 days, which the Guiness Book of Records places as the longest known survivor.
But without water, survival time drops to 3-7 days. Clearly, if we don’t drink water, we quickly die from dehydration. Given that the human body is 76% water, one might think as a society we would put the absolute highest priority on maintaining this most vitally necessary substance for our survival.
Unfortunately, that is not the case on either the federal or state level as politicians pander to the never-ending demands to lower water quality standards to appease industries, municipalities, water utilities, and to muster support by claiming deregulation is “cutting red tape.”
The average American would be shocked to know what’s in their water — as well as what passes through both fresh and wastewater treatment........