Search

Results

Water hazards

26 Apr 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the First Letter of John this Sunday warns that not all of those who say they keep the commandments may be telling the truth. While there are federal laws governing release of harmful chemicals into the public water supply, investigators wonder if pharmaceutical companies and regulators are telling the whole story about the risks. U.S. manufacturers, including major drug companies, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that provide drinking water--contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press (AP) investigation. To date, drug makers have dismissed the suggestion that their manufacturing contributes significantly to what's being found in the water. Federal drug and water regulators agree. But some researchers say the lack of required testing amounts to a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about whether drug makers are contributing to water pollution. "It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an Environmental Protection Agency enforcement officer before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney. Pilot studies in the U.S. and abroad are now confirming those doubts. Last year the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals--including antibiotics, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones--have been found in U.S. drinking water supplies. Pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans. Most cities and water providers still do not test for pharmaceuticals. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water. They are also increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades. Source: An article by Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza, and Justin Pritchard for the Associated Press

Water associated press water supply pharmaceuticals pharmaceutical companies drinking water kyla bennett pollution
Violations flood the Safe Drinking Water Act

13 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation," exclaims this Sunday's responsorial from the Book of Isaiah. You might not, however, want to drink water from your own tap, according to a study that revealed that millions of people in the U.S. drink dirty water. More than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the past five years. The law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004 the water provided to nearly 50 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage, according to an analysis of federal data by the New York Times. Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials. Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year. A half-dozen current and former EPA officials said in interviews that they tried to prod the agency to enforce the drinking-water law but found little support. "There is significant reluctance within the EPA and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there's a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers," said David Uhlmann, who headed the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department until 2007. It is unclear precisely how many illnesses are linked to contaminated drinking water. Many of the most dangerous contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act have been tied to diseases like cancer that can take years to develop. But scientific research indicates that as many as 19 million Americans may become ill each year due only to parasites, viruses, and bacteria in drinking water. Source: An article by Charles Duhigg for the New York Times

Water justice department drinking water contaminents david uhlmann safe drinking water act
Violations flood the Safe Drinking Water Act

13 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation," exclaims this Sunday's responsorial from the Book of Isaiah. You might not, however, want to drink water from your own tap, according to a study that revealed that millions of people in the U.S. drink dirty water. More than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the past five years. The law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004 the water provided to nearly 50 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage, according to an analysis of federal data by the New York Times. Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials. Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year. A half-dozen current and former EPA officials said in interviews that they tried to prod the agency to enforce the drinking-water law but found little support. "There is significant reluctance within the EPA and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there's a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers," said David Uhlmann, who headed the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department until 2007. It is unclear precisely how many illnesses are linked to contaminated drinking water. Many of the most dangerous contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act have been tied to diseases like cancer that can take years to develop. But scientific research indicates that as many as 19 million Americans may become ill each year due only to parasites, viruses, and bacteria in drinking water. Source: An article by Charles Duhigg for the New York Times

Water justice department drinking water contaminents david uhlmann safe drinking water act
Water, water everywhere a problem

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink," says the Lord in this Sunday's reading from the Book of Isaiah. Repairs and upgrades to the nation's aging water and sewer systems--some dating to the Civil War--have been neglected for so long that, on average, a significant water line bursts somewhere in the U.S every two minutes.When the pipes break they damage streets and homes and allow sewage to seep into drinking water supplies. But the problem, water utility officials said, is that citizens have grown accustomed to inexpensive water delivery and sewage disposal, and that has resulted in a lack of adequate funding to maintain the systems that make those services possible."People pay more for their cell phones and cable television than for water," said George Hawkins, who heads the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. "You can go a day without a phone or T.V. You can't go a day without water.""We're relying on water systems built by our great-grandparents, and no one wants to pay for the decades we've spent ignoring them," said Jeffrey K. Griffiths, a professor at Tufts University and a member of the Environmental Protection Agency's National Drinking Water Advisory Council. Source: Articles by Charles Duhigg for the New York Times and Andrew Nusca for SmartPlanet.com

Water united states water supply drinking water sewage george hawkins jeffrey k griffiths
Water, water not everywhere

27 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The need for water both liquid and spiritual figures in the first reading and the gospel this Sunday. With half of the world's population now living in cities and a full two thirds expected to do so by 2030, the provision of water in urban areas has become a critical issue. Such was the message to delegates gathered at a three-day event held in Cape Town to mark World Water Day (March 22). Over 1,000 representatives from more than 30 organizations were told the world needs to act immediately to tackle an urban crisis of growing city slums lacking in water and sanitation. According to the U.N., 27 percent of the world's city-dwellers in the developing world live without piped water at home, while proper sanitation presents an even greater challenge. The situation is especially acute in Africa, which has the world's highest rate of urbanization and where city populations are expected to double in the next 20 years. Water services, however, have been declining since 1990. Sixty percent of African city residents live in slums, and 55 million of those are without safe drinking water. About 175 million lacked reasonable sanitation in 2008. A U.N. Millennium Development Goals report says that the world could see more than 800 million people without clean drinking water and 1.8 billion people deprived of basic sanitation by 2015. Cost and health factors also play a role. Millions of people reportedly have died of water-borne diseases in the past decade, and in the slums of Jakarta, Manila, and Nairobi people who are poor pay 5 to 10 times more for water than those living in higher-income areas like in London or New York. Sources: Articles by United Press International and Vijeta Rattani and Trupti Sahu for atlantic-community.org

Poor Water water supply drinking water developing countries cities urbanization africa sanitation
Contaminated water plagues Toledo

10 Aug 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Kings moves us from one calamity of nature to another while Elijah struggles to discover the Lord. Facing a man-made calamity in the form of contaminated drinking water caused by polluted runoff, residents of Toledo, Ohio struggle to cope with a threat to their drinking water because of dangerous toxins in Lake Erie.Though an outright ban on tap water has been lifted for the moment, it likely will return as algae blooms create dangerous toxins that normally do not peak until September. Flooded by tides of phosphorus washed from fertilized farms, cattle feedlots, and leaky septic systems, the most intensely developed of the Great Lakes is increasingly being choked each summer by thick mats of algae, much of it poisonous.And the troubles are not restricted to the Great Lakes. Poisonous algae are found in polluted inland lakes from Minnesota to Nebraska to California, and even in the glacial-era kettle ponds of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Similar blooms also are strangling Lake Winnipeg, one of Canada’s largest, and some bays in Lake Huron.Even oceans are not immune. Algae fed by phosphorus runoff from mid-America farms helped create an oxygen-free dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico last summer that was nearly as big as New Jersey. The Chesapeake Bay regularly struggles with a similar problem.Homily hint: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church issued by the Vatican recognizes the importance of water. “Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right.” Much of the world faces chronic water shortages. The situation in Toledo is a wake-up call that drinkable water must always come first, before profits or industrial use. Source: An article by Michael Wines for The New York Times

drinking water environmentalism natural disasters
Flint, Michigan drinking water still tapped out

19 Mar 2017 - Preaching the News for the Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Jesus has the most basic of needs in this Sunday’s gospel as he sits by a well after a long journey—the need for water. He promises the Samaritan woman who attends him that he can give her a "spring of water welling up to eternal life.” It has been nearly three years since the people of Flint, Michigan had clean drinking water flowing from their taps, yet only now are the responsible parties being brought to justice. A former top state health official was sentenced to one year’s probation Monday for her role in the Flint water crisis, and seven other state employees charged in connection with the lead contamination of the city’s drinking water will have preliminary examinations later this year. Corinne Miller, the retired head of the Health and Human Services Epidemiology Department, had pleaded no contest in September to a charge of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail. But under a sentencing agreement, Judge Jennifer Manley of Flint’s 67th District Court spared Miller incarceration, with conditions that include her continued cooperation with the state attorney general’s investigation into the water crisis. The seven other state employees face charges ranging from misconduct in office to tampering with evidence. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office said actions—and inaction—by state health employees led to Flint using its river for drinking water from April 2014 until October 2015 without employing corrosion controls to prevent lead contamination. Unsuspecting Flint residents, including thousands of children, were exposed to water with high concentrations of lead. The resulting crisis has been linked to several deaths, including cases of Legionnaires’ disease. It has made international news as officials scrambled to provide filters and bottled water to families. “(Miller) was the first one to come forward and face the music,” Todd Flood, special prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside the courtroom Monday. “And she is continuing to cooperate.” Besides providing her help, Miller must stay crime-free, do 300 hours of community service, pay $1,325 in court costs and fees, and write a letter apologizing to the citizens of Flint, Manley ordered Monday. Flood declined to discuss whether others might be charged in the Flint investigation. He argued successfully last Monday against a request from defense attorneys for the dismissal of misconduct charges against Michael Francis-Gerard Prysby, a district engineer, and Stephen Benjamin Busch, a DEQ district supervisor, and other defendants. Prysby, Busch, and the five other defendants will have preliminary examinations later this year to determine if they will stand trial on charges that can carry up to five years in prison and fines. “I do certainly understand the seriousness of a preliminary exam . . . but I am not going to make a ruling on whether” to dismiss charges at this point, said Judge Manley. Lessons drawn from the readings The thirsty Israelites grumbled during their desert sojourn and turned against their leader Moses until he was able—with divine assistance—to provide them with fresh water. Our own leaders should take note of the message of the first reading—meet the people’s most basic needs! Final thought in light of the news Flint has not had clean drinking water since April 25, 2014, when the city switched its drinking water supply to the Flint River. Since news broke of Flint’s water crisis, celebrities, and politicians have exploited the crisis to elevate their images, cast blame on their opponents, and boost fundraising for their own endeavors—all while Flint’s water remains polluted. Let’s call our leaders to real accountability, not posturing. They must preserve and protect the most basic and precious of resources—clean drinking water. Without water there is no life, the greatest gift of our Creator. Let’s honor that gift through good stewardship.

clean water drinking water flint, michigan lead poisoning flint water crisis
Fact of the week

19 Mar 2017 - Preaching the News for the Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

In December, a Reuters report found nearly 3,000 areas around the country that had recent lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint at the peak of the crisis. The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

lead poisoning clean water drinking water flint, michigan