By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director
Yesterday I wrote about the
“Trickle Down Problem,” which allows pollution caused by our industrial and other activities to perpetuate until it trickles down to our drinking water sources. We’re left to solve the problem with treatment and higher costs to consumers.
What would it look like to act as if drinking water matters? As noted in Part 1, we would not exempt hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas (or other activities) from the Safe Drinking Water Act. We’d also apply a great deal more foresight to our chemical policies.
It’s possible to envision an honest conversation, across our society, which actually considers the safety of our drinking water, our public health, resource depletion, climate change and the true costs of pollution. It takes bravery and political will. Our friends at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production convened one such discussion with the
Toward Tomorrow project.
A big re-think is not impossible. But there are simple things we can do right now that illustrate what it might look like to put drinking water first:
CLOSE CLEAN WATER ACT GAPS: We’ve been engaged for over a decade in a ridiculous debate about which water the Clean Water Act is meant to protect. It’s time to put this to rest and send the special interests home. The streams and wetlands at stake are a vital part of our water infrastructure. They filter pollution and prevent flooding, and feed the drinking water for over 117 million of us. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers have proposed a solution; we expect it to be finalized soon and are
encouraging the Administration to continue to move this forward so that we may focus on ever more pressing water issues.
STOP ARGUING OVER CLIMATE CHANGE: We simply do not have time to politicize this issue. Climate change is water change. We will feel the impacts of global warming in our water resources first; in fact we already are. Among the many challenges will be how to address the water quantity and quality changes that are to come. Acting like drinking water matters means doing everything we can to curb greenhouse gas emissions and making sure our water programs are geared toward not only reducing carbon emissions but helping us adapt to the changes that are already here or on their way.
EPA’s draft
National Water Program: Response to Climate Change is a good first step on the latter. Putting to rest the notion that we all get to decide which science to believe and adopting smart carbon and clean energy policies is the only solution to the former.
Controlling greenhouse gas pollution from new power plants is just one step but it deserves our support.
Drinking water matters because public health matters. Our activities ultimately affect our health and the well-being of our communities. Acting as if drinking water matters can have many long-reaching results and remind us how precious this resource is. So cozy up to a tall glass of tap water, don’t forget to laugh about that person paying 400 times more for bottled water and take some action.
