Water is for Wasting
<~ Do you see this fish?
This is where I want to live;
finally, my perfect pond.
An environmental group's analysis of drinking water records in 42 states finds an unprecedented amount of unregulated chemicals contained in the liquid.
The survey by the Environmental Working Group reveals 141 unregulated chemicals and an additional 119 in water, causing the Environmental Protection Agency to set health-based limits.
Most common among the chemicals found were disinfectant byproducts, nitrates, chloroform, barium, arsenic and copper.
The findings are compiled from those states that agreed to provide data they collected from 1998 to 2003. That data comes from nearly 40,000 water utilities, serving 231 million people. The utilities were required by federal law to report that data to consumers.
For the unregulated chemicals, EPA is still identifying and considering the potential risks for possible future regulations. Nineteen of those chemicals exceeded EPA's safety guidelines, which are not enforced, for tap water systems serving at least 10,000 people.
Jane Houlihan, EWG's vice president for research, says the group's findings show the United States allows millions of people to be exposed to some chemicals for which EPA either has never considered the risks or if it has, has no enforceable limits.
The top 10 states, listed in order of the most contaminants in their drinking water, are: California, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
It'd be a damn funny joke if I weren't crying so hard.
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