Did EPA mislead public on water?

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is investigating whether the agency is deliberately misleading the public by overstating the purity of the nation’s drinking water, according to EPA officials and agency documents.

 THE INQUIRY was launched June 18, five days before then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman released the “Draft Report on the Environment,” which stated that “94 percent of the population served by community water systems were served by systems that met all health-based standards.”
       Internal agency documents, however, show that EPA audits for at least five years have suggested that the percentage of the population with safe drinking water is much lower — 79 to 84 percent in 2002 — putting an additional 30 million Americans at potential risk.
       EPA officials said the draft report and other public documents routinely add a caveat stating, “underreporting and late reporting of data affect the accuracy” of the calculations. But agency sources said the inspector general was questioning the disclaimers’ adequacy and honesty, given the EPA’s own long-term skepticism about the 94 percent figure.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/948891.asp?0cl=c3
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21544-2003Aug5.html

1. If anything good happens the Media Whores play it 100% Bush's decision. Any negative news Bush had nothing to do with it and the story is referenced to the Dept. or the Dept head.

Tell the truth Media Whores or you're going to go to Hell. These people are doing exacly what Bush is ordering them to do.

2. Bush Administration is the most corrupt in the history of the United States but gets no Media Whore investigations.

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Guy Gugliotta: gugliottag@washpost.com
National staff writer/science

gugliottag@washpost.com, leducd@washpost.com, leenj@washpost.com, marcusr@washpost.com, morses@washpost.com, ombudsman@washpost.com



Mr. Gugliotta,

How could you possibly publish this story and NOT ONCE mention Bush's name? These people in the EPA are doing exacly what Bush is ordering them to do.

Are you as corrupt as the Bush Administration? YES. The proof is in your writing and can be proven in a court of law. You, your editors, your company should be prosecuted under the RICO Statute.

Public trust? LOL! You have no morals!

MyNameHere

IG Investigates Whether EPA Misled Public on Water Quality
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21544-2003Aug5.html


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http://www.geocities.com/darkerxdarker

Save the relative haven of this board, y'all seem to done gone stark-raving mad. The smell of coffee failed to roust you, LOTTA FOLKS be talking about poisoning and buying up "water rights," do ponder your 98% investment and Google Bill Moyers on the subject (forget food and energy for a moment, we're talking the WATER PIPELINE).

Many surely smell the corpses returning to their neighborhoods and the *powers-that-be wanna shut 'em up, what ain't been shot to shit by ordnance or vaccines yet, about they don't have WATER to drink and it's a gazillion centigrade.

Is there a DJ in the house? Buffalo Springfield and you know exactly which one I mean! Ich bedanke mich.

July 15, 2003
......Speakers cited several other examples of industry-inspired deception—including the exploits of the tobacco industry, of Exxon corporation following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, of the food industry, the asbestos industry, and the concentrated animal operation feed industries (CAFOs) in states such as North Carolina, where lagoons of animal waste pollute the air and water.

According to the speakers, several industries have made so-called "junk science"—the publication of their own self-serving research results—common practice. Also common are suppressing or criticizing research that does not support their position and disseminating data or their own risk interpretations directly to the lay press and policy makers.

Many industries have detailed plans in place to challenge scientific findings as soon as regulations appear that could threaten their bottom line, said David Michaels, a research professor of occupational and health services at George Washington University and a former US assistant secretary of energy for environment, safety, and health.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030715/03

destroyed any scientific integrity....

as the great writer, H.Thompson, recently wrote:

-snip-

The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world.

The Stock Market will never come back, our Armies will never again be No. 1, and OUR CHILDREN WILL DRINK FILTHY WATER FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.

(emphasis added)

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/030722.html

I work in water systems, I know whereof I speak.

Water utilities in the US are mostly public utilities run by cities and/or water districts. There are a few private for-profit water utilities but these are NOT popular in the US.

The majority of violations in the EPA and State agencies lists are occasional failures to report tests, incidental exceedance of MCL's (maximum contaminant levels", of failures to test at all. Some of this is the result of the regulations being a moving target over the last 15 years.

The most frequent violators are the very small towns and water districts that have little money and limited staff.

A large percentage of unsafe water supplies are private, individual wells. Municipal water supplies are mostly safe.

If you are concerned about your own water, ask your utility for a Consumer Confidence Report. They have to do these annually and they have to list all substances that are regulated and tested for. And the have to list any violations they may have had.

It the UK and Europe water utilities are largely privatized, a bad trend we want to prevent over here. See www.gregpalast.com for more details.

failures to test at all, and tests that exceed the limits are common....

the BIGGER issue comes right from OUR Nation's Capital...

under shrub's direction:
1. NO new contaminants can be added to the currently required tests.
2. NO lowering of toxic contaminants (MCLs) are allowed.
3. Toxic chemical levels are set by special interests...the most obvious to the public was when the mining companies changed the Arsenic levels in drinking water under orders from shrub. This eventually got partially turned back to previous levels, but it should be MUCH lower levels, and there are hundreds more where that came from. Most chemicals used for our modern plastics are NOT on these lists, at the request of chemical lobbyists. Many agricultural chemicals are NOT on the lists, at the request of farm lobbists.

I call shrub's approach the "see no toxins" "speak no toxins" "hear no toxins" (the three monkeys, with hands over eyes, mouth, and ears)

Despite such blatant shrub manipulation of chemical data, the end result is the same as in Enron (a manipulation of financial data)....it's all just a show, and we are still suffering horribly from toxic chemicals in our drinking water, especially children.

I am in agreement that water should NOT be privatized. Unfortunately, it is already being privatized all across America.
Where there's money to be made, count on shrub to have it all privatized...water privitization is being done NOW, and Americans are truly asleep at the wheel...this is a shameful and regretful thing to do...it is an outright theft, in true shrub style..

BOOT bush* in 2004

Re-Defeat bush* in 2004