Clean water laws are neglected, at a cost in suffering
By CHARLES DUHIGG Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va. In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away. Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system. “How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks. She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home. “How is this still happening today?” she asked. When Mrs. Hall-Massey and 264 neighbors sued nine nearby coal companies, accusing them of putting dangerous waste into local water supplies, their lawyer did not have to look far for evidence. As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed in reports to regulators that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals — the same pollutants that flowed from residents’ taps. But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws. …
Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering via The Oil Drum
Reproduced below is a comment from the original story in the NYT:
"I have a friend who is a chemist and he called his employer the Environmental prostitution Agency. He was regularly asked to change results. Being an excellent chemist he moved on as the problem was too large for him to tackle."
This has the ring of authenticity.
People naively assume that just because we citizens are paying government agencies like EPA and FDA to inspect and patrol our food, water, and air, we can expect our environment to be safe. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Our air is saturated with poisonous gasses from burning gasoline, ethanol and other fuels, and our government is owned by highly profitable industries. Toxins from many sources are killing plants, animals, and people.
In a humorous clip on the Brian Lehrer show at NPR yesterday, Bernie Madow described how he and his associates laughed at the regulators from the SEC when they came to inspect, because they knew those guys were planning to cash in on jobs at the same hedge funds and banks they were supposed to report on, after a few years on the federal payroll.
The EPA should be held criminally liable for not disclosing the truth about pollution that is eating away at our home, Earth.