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| Hudson Valley photo copyright Carolyn Odell Photography |
Thank you to The Catskill Mountainkeeper for permission to reblog
The New York State Water Supply: We Can't Become Another West Virginia
By
Ramsay Adams
Most of New York's drinking water comes from right here in the Catskills, and it is renowned for its taste and purity.
Our
water is simply amazing, and we need to protect it for all of us who live here, and
the 19 million people in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania that rely on
water from our Delaware and Catskill wathersheds.
Our
Catskill water is so pure, it reaches the taps of New York City unfiltered. Sadly,
for the most part, we take it for granted that its purity and supply is being
protected with vigilence by governmental regulatory agencies
.
In our
everyday lives, we
just trust the water from our wells or municipal sources is safe and
pure. We also trust that our regulatory agencies are doing their most to
protect us from pollution and spills into our water supply.
The
truth is that we should be much more watchful and cautious in making sure our
water supply is protected.
Case in
point: There's
an ongoing environmental disaster involving the water supply of hundreds of
thousands of residents in West Virginia that we in the Catskills should be
paying very close attention to in terms of protecting our own H2O.
Earlier
this month, over
7,500 gallons of a clear, licorice-smelling chemical used to process coal
leaked from an old storage tank and spilled into the Elk River. The
accident took place near the largest water treatment plant in the state.
Life
came to a halt there with
the resulting prohibition on using tap water. Over 300,000 residents of
West Virginia were ordered not to drink the tap water. That chemical, Crude
MCHM, which is primarily composed of a chemical named 4-methylcyclohexane
methanol is very toxic, and there were immediate reports of rashes, stomach
aches, and other ailments.
After
10 days, restrictions
on using tap water were lifted for most of those affected by the disaster, even
though the licorice smell remained. Pregnant women are still being advised not
to drink the water, while Governor Earl Ray Tomblin emphasized that tests
indicated the water is safe under guidelines set by the US Centers for Disease
Control, he also told a press conference he was not aware of a recommendation
for home owners to flush their pipes until the smell is not present.
He was
not too reassuring when
he told residents: "If you do not feel comfortable drinking or
cooking in this water, then use bottled water...I'm not going to say
absolutely, 100 percent that everything is safe. But what I can say is if you
do not feel comfortable, don't use it."
Now as
West Virginia officials, who are no strangers to environmental spills and lax
regulation, scurry to deal with the health disaster, serious questions are
being raised as to why there's so little regulation of the storage of these
chemicals-and even worse, why there's so little knowledge by the Federal
government and the medical field about the potential toxicity of chemicals like
the one spilled into the Elk River.
What
stands out the most from the WV spill is how the Federal and state governments
throughout the nation fail to monitor chemicals and their use in terms of
protecting our water supplies.
A recent article in the Washington Post's
Health and Science section stated that "It has been 38 years since
Congress passed a major piece of legislation regulating toxic chemicals, even
though there is no disagreement that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, or
Tosca) needs an overhaul" and that ""Chemicals
in the United States are generally treated as innocent until proven guilty. A
company does not have to prove that a chemical does not pose a health hazard in
order to introduce it in the commercial market."
Much
like West Virginia, our state is way too lax in regulating chemicals.
Here in
New York State, the
controversy surrounding Fracking already highlights the dangerous nature of
chemicals used and released in the fracking process, particularly to the water
supply, and serves as a reminder of how lax the regulation of chemicals are in
our own backyard. In fact, several of the chemicals identified in the
West Virginia spill are manufactured for fracking operations.
In a report issued by Environmental
Advocates in May, 2012, a dire warning was issued about the lack of regulation
of the oil and drilling process and the flawed exemption of chemicals from
being deemed hazardous waste:
"Existing
state laws and regulations do not require oil and gas companies to report with
any specificity how much waste is being created, its chemical components, or
how drilling waste is being disposed. We also discovered that much of
fracking's waste would likely be classified as hazardous waste if it were not
exempt under flawed state regulations."
The
lessons of the recent chemical spill in West Virginia need to be learned well,
and implemented quickly, here in upstate New York.
It's
just not about potential fracking here in the Catskills, but about a broader,
rudimentary need to protect our water supply from chemicals on a day-to-day
basis.
Right
now, our water supply is woefully underregulated in terms of chemical
storage and transportation, and with the boom going on right now in
transmission pipes servicing the needs of the oil and gas industries in
neighboring states, updated studies and regulations should be mandated
immediately.
The
time to take action is now, at both the local and state levels of government,
before it is too late. To find out what you can do to help, email us or
visit Catskill Mountainkeeper
today.
