Tap Water

EWG comments on EPA’s review of toxicological studies for hexavalent chromium say that there is no need to weaken the conclusions or delay issuing the document.

Companies that drill for natural gas and oil in the United States are skirting federal law and injecting toxic petroleum distillates (think: kerosene, mineral spirits and a number of other petroleum products that often contain high levels of benzene, a known human carcinogen that is toxic in water at minuscule levels) into thousands of wells, threatening drinking water supplies from Pennsylvania to Wyoming.

Perdue Chicken Chairman Jim Perdue is retaliating against environmentalists -- and their lawyers -- who filed filed suit against the poultry giant and one of its contract chicken farms on March 2 for violations of the Clean Water Act. From The Washington Post: In Maryland, messing with Big Chicken can bring big trouble. The latest case study is playing out in Annapolis, where the state Senate wants to impose greater scrutiny on the University of Maryland's environmental law clinic.

If your family got its water from your own well (and a lot of people do), what would you say to someone who wanted to pump a whole grab-bag of chemicals into the ground nearby, including some that are known to be toxic or to cause cancer? Just guessing here, but I suspect you’d send him on his way with a few choice words.

As the saying goes, another one bites the dust. Another year, that is. But before we leave 2009 behind for good - which many of us would happily do - let's take a quick look back at the 10 most popular Enviroblog posts of the year. It's a (web)log, after all, of what's newsworthy in toxics, a chronicle of what was on our minds, and yours.

Special to Enviroblog by Bonnie Raitt & Erin Brockovich. You know I like giving people something to talk about. Erin's the same way. Some might call us rabble-rousers, but we're just speaking up about the things that matter -- like making our planet greener and the products we use safer.

When people ask what kind of water filter to use for their tapwater, we reply, "It depends on what contaminants are present in your tap water, since different filters are effective at removing different contaminants."

Back in September we wrote here about a West Virginia family with really, really toxic tap water. We learned about the Hall-Massey family's tragic situation in the New York Times' excellent investigative series about the pervasive water pollution allowed by too many Clean Water Act violations that too often go unpunished.

Associated Press, John Heilprin

Published December 20, 2005

Drinking water may have a lot more in it than just H20 and fluoride, according to an environmental group's analysis of records in 42 states.