In The Miami Herald, opinion writer Fred Grimm points out the super-millionaires running for state-wide office in Florida. He attributes their success to "mass stupidity". There is another case reported in the Herald that proves the dismal point: a few dozen homes near The Falls in West Kendall have been banned from using their own wells, for drinking water, because of dangerous pesticide pollution.
"County officials didn't want to take any chances and County Commissioners approved the $700,000 water main project, which is expected to be completed within three months." To believe that county officials "didn't want to take any chances" is part of the mass stupidity. Here is the bright fact about polluted sources of drinking water:
if county officials really cared about your health, they would have long ago assessed rock miners in West Dade the full cost of violating the wellfield protection zone. 2.2 million people who get their drinking water from the West Dade wellfields have to trust the same county officials who won't hold rock miners-- the state's most secretive and wealthy industrialists-- responsible for exposing our aquifer to pollution including carcinogens.
The bottom line is that it is good business to keep voters stupid: how else to account for the fact that neither the county nor the state will provide residents with information about cancer-rates in areas, like the Falls, where residents are still drinking water from their own drilled wells? (click 'read more', for full story.) I'll end with a question that our caring public officials might want to explore: can high rates of cancer be pegged to with certain areas of Miami-Dade County? Or is this just part of "don't ask, don't tell"?
I've tried getting answers to these questions; calling both the county and the state. Both get a failing grade "F" for obfuscating and hedging. "Mass stupidity" has many mothers and fathers.
County to hook up The Falls homeowners with clean water
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BY CBS4.COM FOR
WEST KENDALL TODAY
The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department broke ground Thursday on an eight-inch water main in The Falls area in Kendall that will allow 34 homes with contaminated well water to connect to the county's water services, according to CBS4.com.
Those homeowners are currently served by private wells that were tested by the Department of Health and found to be contaminated by Dieldrin, a pesticide. An additional eight homeowners without contaminated wells will also be able to connect to County service.
The affected area is bounded by Southwest 136th Street and 132nd Street between Southwest 99th Place and 99th Court. Homes with contaminated wells were told to avoid drinking, bathing and swimming in the water.
Dieldrin was used on farms until 1974, when it was banned in agriculture. It remained in use for termite infestations until 1987.
Unlike more recent pesticides, dieldrin remains in the environment for a long time, which was once seen as a plus for farmers, said Dennis Howard, chief of the Bureau of Pesticides for the Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services.
Studies have shown that when rats are fed dieldrin over a long period of time, they suffer from liver disease and their immune system weakens, according to the Health Department. But two University of Florida experts said the low concentrations of dieldrin found in these cases probably pose little or no risk to people.
County officials didn't want to take any chances and County Commissioners approved the $700,000 water main project, which is expected to be completed within three months.
Commissioner Katy Sorenson represents the affected area and notes the collaborative effort between numerous agencies and residents working together to resolve the issue.
"I had a meeting with the neighbors affected by the discovery of this long-banned insecticide in their water wells and we're moving on a fix," said Commissioner Sorenson. "Everyone involved in this effort - the Health Department, Water & Sewer, DERM, our Capital Improvement Office, and of course the neighbors, have really pulled together on this."
In addition to receiving County water, which meets or exceeds all local, state and federal guidelines, the community also will benefit from increased fire protection access.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/30/1753544/county-to-hook-up-the-falls-homeowners.html#ixzz0vLpL953N
3 comments:
Have you seen the cancer rates in South Florida.
Palm Beach County - drinking water....yuk
Port St. Lucie - large numbers of "small" emissions, carrying bad stuff with the prevailing winds. Large numbers of brain cancers in children and breast cancer in women.
Miami - single walled, fiberglass, in ground tanks - cracking like eggshells. SIngle walled, fiberglass, in ground tanks with inner linings that are failing - cracking like eggshells. Ethanol dissolving the fiberglass, in ground tanks, cracking like eggshells. Authorities being very quiet. Gas station owners throwing keys in "the tank" and walking away.
Fuel lines from MIA to TP, leaking for years. Deep well injection, amonia in the water. Heating fuel tanks from the 50's, still in the ground, rusting, leaking. Falls wells and Continental Park wells - contaminated. Water - hmmm.
Turkey Point - 30 year old dinosaur of a nuke plant. Concerning.
Should I keep going? No, it's depressing.
Yes it is depressing, and all true. Eventually the impacts to Floridians are going to be even more damaging than the Gulf oil spill to Florida's beaches. It could take years, decades; degraded water quality is a ticking time bomb. What is so shocking to me is that pretty smart people who live in Florida and get cancer at rates that don't make sense except as a matter of environmental connection, don't support protecting the environment.
So, what is your take on the quality of the water testing coming out of the faucet? Do you think they skew the results or do this at certain times of the year?
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