We Really Can Put Drinking Water First

By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director When I first learned that power plants, especially coal plants, are the #1 discharger of toxic contaminants into surface waters I was actually surprised.  When I learned that many of these discharges happen near drinking water intakes, I was intrigued. Then I noticed that some of the most common contaminants in power plant water pollution are subjects of concern when it comes to Public Water System operations and drinking water regulation. So I wrote a short whitepaper to make the connections.  You can read Put Drinking Water First: Time to Curb Power Plants' Toxic Pollution on our website. One of my favorite subjects is putting drinking water first.  We have to stop allowing pollution from our activities to contaminate drinking water and then rely on our Public Water Systems to treat the water to remove those contaminants. It's great that they can often accomplish this, but it's an inefficient way to clean up our pollution. It means you pay the bill.  Doesn't that seem backwards? After you read the report, don't forget to weigh in during EPA's open public comment period on proposed controls on this pollution. It really is the least we can do to put drinking water first.