4 ms·
Turning the US into the kind of country where it is unsafe to drink the tap water.
by ocschwar 9y ago
Turning the US into the kind of country where it is unsafe to drink the tap water.
- vvanders 9y agoI feel like these things go in cycles and things are going to have to get worse before people notice and push for something better.
- sobkas 9y agoTurning? Wasn't it true already with cases like Flint?
- clumsysmurf 9y agoAnd Flint is just the tip of the iceberg "63 million Americans exposed to unsafe drinking water" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/14/63-million-americans-exposed-unsafe-drinking-water/564278001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/14/63-million-am...
- mythrwy 9y agoApparently it's already unsafe to drink the tap water in parts of the country. No turning needed. Sometimes bureaucracies need a cleanout. They can then be rebuilt more effectively later.
- kl2 9y agoThere are still 14,400 EPA employees left. Are you saying that this many EPA employees are not sufficient to ensure safe drinking water?
- FussyZeus 9y agoIf that's literally the only thing it did, with zero management structure, that means a scant 4-5 people to assure clean water per county in the US.
- surfmike 9y agoCan't tell if this is sarcasm. Clean water is the responsibility of local governments, not the federal government.
- aaronbrethorst 9y agoHow do you explain the existence of the Clean Water Act? Waterways don’t end at county or parish borders.
- jimjimjim 9y agoby that logic hurricane repair is the responsibility of local governments, not the federal government. or taken to the stupid conclusion, war is the responsibility of local governments, not the federal government.
- cr1895 9y ago>or taken to the stupid conclusion, war is the responsibility of local governments, not the federal government. Well no, I think that one is quite literally spelled out in the Constitution as a function of Congress.
- lightbyte 9y agoWaterways normally cross state lines so that is also spelled out in the Constitution as a responsibility of the federal government.
- bnolsen 9y agoYou realize the EPA has its own fully supplied SWAT teams and everything? The EPA has gone waaaaay past just the drinking water thing. Also they ensured crappy drinking water by mass dumping a bunch of waste and ruining one of the rivers in southwest CO. Government agencies in the US need very serious trimming. Too many friggin bureaucratic power mad lifers running around who don't give a rat's ass about all those "little people" stuck with their obamacare.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- girzel 9y agoSo: EPA BAD
- haksis 9y agoI agree that there's way too much regulation in the US, too much rent seeking and regulatory capture. Deregulation is one area I have extremely mixed feelings about Trump about: in some ways I don't think he's going far enough, and in other ways I feel like he's going too far. However, this EPA cutting is one of those cases where context is everything. If Trump were trimming the EPA but maintaining its core mission and not letting the foxes guard the henhouse, I might feel differently. And lauding Trump for cutting the EPA SWAT teams even while he lets municipal police--who have ample daily opportunities for abuse--stockpile military supplies seems disingenuous.
- raisedbyninjas 9y ago"The EPA has gone waaaaay past just the drinking water thing. Also they ensured crappy drinking water by mass dumping a bunch of waste and ruining one of the rivers in southwest CO." I assume you're referring to the accidental leak of contaminated mine water into the Animas river. The private sector is free to clean up after itself instead of abandoning mines in a hazardous state. Unfortunately they don't always do that. The EPA is charged with managing hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines of which tens of thousands threaten to contaminate groundwater. Sabotaging and underfunding the organization with this responsibility can't end well.
- headmelted 9y agoIf it makes you feel any better, it may no longer be safe to drink tap water anywhere. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-...
- pcardh0 9y agoReducing staff 2.5% is all that stands between clean and polluted water.