Yesterday the AP report of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply serving millions of Americans made huge waves, even though it was not exactly news. Miami and county decision makers deserve to be held accountable for all their actions that put your health at risk.
With its multi-billion dollar budget of capital improvements designed to keep the Growth Machine humming, Miami Dade Water and Sewer Department issued a press statement that is inaccurate at best. Here is what it says, with my comments.
"The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department wants to assure all its customers that its number one priority is the health and safety of all its customers." This is not true, because if it were-- all the other points listed below would be true.
"Water professionals have been researching the occurrence of these substances for the past 30 years. It is only now, due to today's advanced technology that scientists are able to detect more substances--at lower levels--than ever before." In fact, industry--through the revolving door with agency professionals--has conspired to suppress regulations that could protect the public health from contaminants in drinking water. True, detection technology has advanced in recent years. But it is also true that precaution was abandoned by industry and government in the approval and introduction of chemicals in the environment when there was ample scientific evidence that lower level organisms are harmed. For the few chemicals that are actually regulated by the Clean Water Act, industry and government together calibrate standards to impacts on adult health, not the health of children in development. This matter of "detection" is to a large extent a smokescreen allowing unsustainable practices by industry to pollute the environment and impose severe costs on people.
"The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set standards for pharmaceuticals in water--therefore, WASD has not tested the water supply for these microconstituents." This is a refrain that drives thinking people to madness. When it comes to toxics in the environment, government operates by the rule: if you don't test for a problem, the problem doesn't exist. It is this principle, specifically, that dictating the response of county government to its underground injection well control program, shown by Sierra Club to be leaking upwards in Miami-Dade county and threatening the Floridan aquifer through a $2500 study interpreting the county's own data to show violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. That $2500 investment led to a federal lawsuit and forced the state and county to take action through billions of infrastructure improvements it had postponed but knew were likely necessary.
"All of Miami-Dade County's drinking water comes from underground sources, which are less likely to be influenced by sources of pharmaceuticals than rivers and lakes." Less likely, perhaps. This is only true if you close your eyes and repeat it a thousand times. In South Florida, ground water is under the influence of surface water, exposing the county to unlimited liability in the event that Miami's drinking water supply is contaminated, like Milwaukee in 1993 sickening hundreds of thousands of people.
"Research throughout the world has not demonstrated an impact on human health from pharmaceuticals in drinking water at the trace levels at which they have been found." There are at least two ways that this statement is misleading: first, legislatures at all levels of government have denied adequate budgets to agencies and scientists to "prove" harm to people from chemical constituents that are unregulated by the Clean Water Act. Second, by insisting that regulations calibrate testing on humans as adults, policy that could demonstrate an impact to human health is deliberately skewed away from precaution.
"Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department's wastewater treatment plants are located on the east coast, very distant from the drinking water wells which are located far to the west. The Department draws water from the underground Biscayne Aquifer." These two statements are non-sequitors. The notion that the wells are "very distant" defies the logic that groundwater flows very rapidly through subsurface aquifers formed of porous limestone scored by occlusions and pathways. While it is true that the Department draws water from the Biscayne Aquifer, it is also true that the designation of the Biscayne as a "sole source aquifer" obligates the county to provide the highest level of protection to water quality of surface waters, a standard that is routinely avoided.
"The Department has a Well Field Protection Program in place that protects the drinking water wells." This is a lie. Exposing this lie is the substance of a multi-year lawsuit by environmental organizations against the US Army Corps of Engineers for permitting rock mining in areas where groundwater flows much more rapidly than provided for under the so-called "protection". It bears pointing out, that County Commissioner Natacha Seijas--who has supervised the county commission committee governing water issues for many years-- is single-handedly responsible for insulating private industry and local government agencies from exposure to the truth on this issue. When then WASD director William Brandt raised the issue that the wellfield protection zone and influence of contaminants raised enormous liabilities to the county, he was instructed by county attorneys not to put his thoughts in writing. This fact was disclosed in litigation by environmental groups in the federal courtroom of Judge William Hoeveler and now under costly appeal by wealthy rock mining interests.
"In compliance with state and federal regulations, WASD publishes a Water Quality Report each year detailing information about all the elements the Department tests for. To date, the Department has always met or exceeded the parameters set by the federal government." This statement is the umbrella, created by private industry lobbyists in Congress and the White House, that all regulated entities charged with protecting water quality hide behind. It is also an umbrella that shields political appointees as they suppress, repress and otherwise threaten competent and professional scientists and agency staff who would tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth if it didn't put their employment at risk. It would be interesting indeed if Congress and the White House criminalized conduct by elected officials or agency managers for failing to base water quality standards and other environmental protection laws on precautionary measures to protect human health and the environment.
"Miami-Dade's water is tested more than 100,000 times--at every stage of the system--every year." That is news. I would like to know when M-D began testing water quality more than 100,000 times a year. Is it also evaluated, and if so, by whom? Are the statistics available in real time, on a county website? Or, is that making too much work out of a limited county budget where so many people are involved in testing. And by the way, how many chemists employed by the county are testing the county's water quality?
Readers who may not be inclined to take up WASD's offer "for more information about the quality of our drinking water" by contact Public Affairs may want to read the free newsletter on toxics in the environment, named for Rachel Carson.
How much money is spent by Miami-Dade County to support environmental groups who sue the government in order to hold agencies accountable to the provisions of federal and state and local environmental laws? I can tell you the answer to this question: it is zero.
In conclusion, if you have any charitable money in your pockets, please donate to environmental organizations who sue government to protect your air, your water, and your Everglades.
8 comments:
How does vile Natacha, the anti-Christ of environment, manage to get on all of these important projects? No good for the little guys can come from her participation. She should be held accountable for the state we are in; no water and contaminated to boot. Her "fix" is lame at best but the real issue is why did we allow her to make the mess then ride in on a white horse and pretend to make it better?
response from gimleteye:
Good question. Seijas made her political career, and who knows what else, representing the Growth Machine... In Hialeah, she knows seniors aren't informed. Her support of unions and vice versa cynically avoids any consideration by members of what she really represents: delay of infrastructure investments in order to keep the costs of development artificially low.
The Miami Herald has given up on even trying to cover the underlying politics of the county. In the past it didn't do a great job, but there was an effort... When articles cast a shadow on the Growth Machine, developers and advertisers call and complain to Herald management.
Yes, Seijas did "make the mess then ride in on a white horse ... pretending to make it better." She has never been publicly called to account.
The mainstream media failed to report the facts, giving encouragement to all the "investors" in keeping people in the dark.
And what about Curtis Morgan's article in the Herald today? "Drug traces not seen as threat to water". How come there was no balance, with this point of view? Is anyone editing the paper, over there, or is it all just on cruise control.
Curtis Morgan...he just doesn't get it. He goes so far but never far enough to be a critical effective force in reporting the environmental news. His reporting is colorless: Just the facts Curtis.
Gimleteye has done a good job of unbuttoning the hype. As my post says, they want to add reuse water to our current aquifer water (which is running out). How will that additional water impact all of the points that Water and Sewer is using to reassure you?
One other thing: in response to County Claim:
"Research throughout the world has not demonstrated an impact on human health from pharmaceuticals in drinking water at the trace levels at which they have been found."
Fish are in the water 24/7 — will show problems first. Research HAS FOUND A LINK TO EPOCS CONTAMINENT TO ABNORMAL FISH DEVELOPMENT as documented in the St. Lucie Estuary, and then again in the Fat Minnow study (goole it – very good study). It appears from fish research, these low level doses of contaminants have effects we will see as the next generation gets to reproduction age. Remember, they have found that the mercury level in the umbilical cord is much higher than in the woman’s body, thus the fish eating warnings for pregnant women.
can we trust water & sewer if Natacha Seijas is the lead commissioner on this issue and has them under her thumb?
According to the WMDSWD, our water supply in Miami-Dade county is tested once every five and a half minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
So pick five random days and ask for the test logs, and see if they tally up.
What do you expect with the infamous John Renfrow in charge? Just follow his footsteps over the past 20 years through all the toxic crap he's never seemed to notice. It's not even the fox guarding the henhouse, it's Perdue.
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