Love That Dirty Water

I often feel guilty because I buy gallons of spring water and 2 liter bottles of sparkle water for my personal consumption. I know it's bad for the environment to generate all those empties, but this eases my conscience a bit:

More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.

That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.

All these violations were reported to EPA and whatever regulators are appropriately notified and "shockingly" "fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials."

Of course, we all know environmental regulatory enforcement was virtually ignored or even actively undermined under the Bush administration, but according to the article, all the people in charge who were appointed under Bush, still hold those positions.

I'm sure you recall when it was reported that Bush was loading the federal bureaucracy listed in the "Plum Book" six layers deep with his loyal GOP operatives. This is the hidden Bush legacy and partly why it's so much more difficult for the Obama administration to quickly repair the damage done by their predecessors.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]