July 20, 2007
Morning Roundup: Will You Drink the Water Edition
Happy Friday morning, Washington. After the latest concerns over the quality and safety of the D.C. area's drinking water, did you think twice about drinking out of the tap yesterday? We mentioned it briefly at the end of the day yesterday, but the Post has a full story on how WASA and Washington Aqueduct officials are trying to calm our concerns about our tap water. Officials said high levels of chlorine toxins found in May in District water tests conducted were probably temporary. Some residents have responded by saying they should have learned about the rise in unsafe pollutants from WASA, not an independent environmental group -- renewing a sense of distrust with the utility that harkens back to the 2004 lead controversy.
Medicaid Funding At Risk In D.C.: Another damning report from the D.C. Office of the Inspector General this morning, this time about wasteful spending of Medicaid funds. Auditors found that three Medicaid contractors received a total of $96.6 million in "excess payments" over the past five years due to a lack of billing oversight on the part of the District. The report also said that the District's Medicaid program risks losing federal money because it has not provided required information about patients and their health care services.
Still Missing School Principals: The Examiner reports that with just one month before the academic year begins in D.C.'s public schools, only two of 18 principal slots have been filled. Officials blamed the slowdown in the hiring process on the timing of the school takeover, and still promised that all the vacancies will be filled by opening day on Aug. 27.
Briefly Noted: Six different shootings overnight in D.C. leave 11 wounded ... Chevy Chase subdivision incorporation bid fails ... City finance office asks for audit extension ... U.S. Capitol gunman pleads guilty.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we looked at then-Mayoral candidate Adrian Fenty's solo vote against last summer's crime emergency legislation, and in 2005 we shared some tips for making an in-town move in the District.
Photo by AlbinoFlea
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"...renewing a sense of distrust with the utility that harkens back to the 2004 lead controversy."
And the 90's controversies over lead, cryptosporidium, coliforms, etc.
Basically, I think WASA would just as soon independent testers focus on the Chesapeake or, even better, the Ural Sea.
The Army Corps of Engineers Washington Aqueduct treats the drinking water. Many people think that WASA treats and sells the water, which is not correct. The Federal Government (Aqueduct and EPA) should also share the responsibility of providing information to the public, not just WASA.
pardon me... I meant to say in #2 that WASA doesn't both treat and sell the water, they just sell it.
I question the EWG's motives for this testing. WASA sent a letter to every customer (I do not think that I received the only letter) and put the word out through the traditional media and on their website that they were adding chlorinated agents to the water in part of April and May and that they do this every other year to insure that the distribution pipes are clean and free of microbes. I neither work for WASA nor trust them but I also have no confidence in the EWG. I was one of the households who were not informed that their water contained high (3000 ppm) of lead in 2002 while I was pregnant. I filter. The EWG must have missed a fund raising mark or something. Their latest campaign against the personal care products industry fell flat on its face.
At the risk of sounding totally ignorant: does Brita do anything to help in this case, or is Deer Park the answer?
Honestly i just feel stupid every time i fill that plastic pitcher with the hope that the filter will actually take care of all the crap in the water. Make it taste good? Maybe. Make it healthy?
Army Corps of Engineers... great. we trust them? the same guys working on New Orleans' levees? I'm signing up for water service.
The Environmental Working Group, that issued this report, is anything but. They are frauds, not to mention, mass killers. They were the ones who achieved the banning of DDT that has resulted in the malaria death of 10 million innocent human beings despite sound medical science research that found no association with DDT and cancer. 90% of the 10 million dead were children under the age of 5 and pregnant women. But hey, they were only third world people, huh! Before the EWG came around malaria had almost been eradicated but depopulation is a "progressive" agenda. The Environmental Working Group exceeds the death tolls of Pol Pot and Hitler. But, then again, these EWG guys wear suits and drive fancy cars so what could be so bad about them!? Would I believe them? Not in 100 trillion years.
Um, Guest 6, you should consider whether your own tone and level of claims may be impeding your own credibility. I tentatively invoke Godwin's Law.
Yup. Shoulda stopped at Pol Pot, dude. Game over.
Pol Pot- estimated at 2 - 4 million
Hitler - estimated at 6 million Jews
estimated at 4-5 million "others"
= 10-12 million estimated
Either one does not exceed the minimum 10+ million of the EWG. It is estimated that 30% of these third world malaria deaths are unreported due to lack of communication facilities. WOV, what would you do? Play nice with these EWG people? After all, they have high "progressive" credibility. Want more historical facts, look up junkscience.com.
I dranked the water. I don't feel no difereeeee......
6 shootings with 11 victims in 1 hour last night. And none in gentrified areas. Gentrification WORKS. Public Housing and the welfare state don't. If DC wants to clean up SE and NE, they need to give major incentives to developers to buy up buildings and land and build new high end condos and apartment buildings in these areas. Then and only then will the city be saved.
Its time to face the fact on this folks. The urban underclass has no place in society and certainly no place in the Nation's Capital.
guest 6 and 9, why are you ignoring the real causes of malaria deaths, like poverty and lack of access to sanitation and the like? maybe if the world had addressed these problems back when DDT was first banned, maybe we wouldn't have to put it back into the environment today.
also: you're not backing this up with any studies... i'm sure you're not interested, but this statement (signed by quite a few large non-profits and NOT EWG): http://www.panna.org/resources/documents/beyondDdt.pdf. it's fully cited, so enjoy.
Yeah and I could point out junkscience.com is funded by ExxonMobil and other companies who just might have an axe to grind. The guy who runs it also gets funding from Philip Morris.
But guest is wrong, DDT is not banned, except for mainly in industrial countries (and even here it can be used in response to a significant malaria outbreak). Heck, it even pops up in cigarettes (thank you Philip Morris).
The World Health Organization supports the use of DDT as one of many tools to fight malaria. But it's not a magic potion that eradicates the mosquitoes and the disease. Mutli-pronged efforts, that also work on infrastructure, improving conditions that spur mosquito reproduction.
Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in the world, has cut malaria-related deaths by about 60 pct since 1999, without using DDT.
Uhhh. DDT is banned in the US. It's still used in various places overseas. #6 is not only overheated, s/he's deeply ignorant.
Thanks, MikeB. I wasn't going to respect G#6 enough to put the effort you did into a reply. But you said what was needed.
G#14
BostonRay says:Actually, Guests #6 and 9 are confusing the Environmental Working Group with the Environmental Defense Fund although both are left wing crackpots. The Environmental Working Group, that pooped this report is consistant in issuing false scare stories for publicity and funding from extreme left wing places like the Tides Foundation. They are also known as the Environmental Worrying Group for their false portrayal of minute pesticide and natural chemicals found in food. They are vegans in a not very good disguise. They have no science behind them, only an organic (e-coli!) agenda. They are a front group for organic food producers and fanatics. It is true they are fraudulent in their presentation and have been villified by even the political EPA. I suppose MikeB has no problem with the funding of the fraudulent anti-smoking produced documents from Robert Wood Johnson Pharmaceutical Johnson & Johnson/Pfizer. Corporation.
BostonRay Update: The Environmental Working (Worrying) Group has been under investigation by the IRS for filing false tax returns as a non-profit, although I have not heard if there has been a disposition. They are heavily funded by the organic food producers ($12 billion market)in addition to the Tides Foundation. Also known to grab taxpayer $$ and friends with pope Al Gorebal (natch!). Like Guest #6 I would not believe anything from them in 100 trillion years.
Toxicity Law # 1: "It's the dose that makes the poison". Not exposure to minor amounts.
But will Brita filter out the DDT?
Toxicity Law #2
Exposure is a function of the chemical's persistence in the environment. Meaning, if it breaks down slowly, or not at all, regardless if the amounts that are added each year are minute the additive effect grow with each passing year. DDT falls into this category, as does mercury, lead, arsenic, etc. Even some approved thereputic drugs get pissed out unaltered/undegraded and so concentrate in the water , soil and food supply.
Toxicity Law #3
Chemicals tend to concentrate "up the food chain". See: Bioconcentration.
DiscoStu:
Yes- carbon will remove a large percentage of the DDT. Reverse Osmosis (a few hundred bucks) will remove essentially everything.
Then you're stuck adding back in flouride (don't want your teeth to rot, do you?) and other trace minerals, like calcium and magnesium.
BostonRay to Guest # 19: With DDT Minute residue has suffered a breakdown in strength and effectiveness and that is why DDT has to be reapplied about every 6 months. There is no documentation that supports a re-application of DDT adds equally to the amount that preceeded it. Quite the opposite. DDT was used in extensive applications by the US military and studied just as heavily with no findings that it was a problem. Here in Chevy Chase I remember following the DDT sprayers at night when we were kids. DDT is the cheapist way to eliminate malaria. The additive effect does not grow with each application. DDT is not in the same category as mercury, lead and arsenic. Those are base elements - DDT is not a base element. Base elements cannot breakdown like DDT. There is also no evidence that DDT harms egg production in birds or the birds themselves. Rachel Carlson was full of **it and guilty in mass murder along with the Environmental Defense Fund.
BostonRay to Disco Stu : Brita will not help you! It secretly administers DDT, Mercury, Lead and arsenic as a right wing plot. All in addition to the base elements that are naturally in all water. Every 6 oz. glass of water you pour also contributes to your carbon footprint so you have to send $10 to Al Gore to buy an offset. Just ignore his well lit heated pool.
What I would *do*, guest 9, is talk like a reasonable human being. If your aim is to actually achieve anything, I'd recommend you do the same. If it is instead to just feel superior to others, carry on with your crazy-dude-on-the-bus screaming.(Especially when you can't or won't refute the coherent arguments of others - saying one pesticide would entirely eliminate one disease, and that eliminating that pesticide is responsible for all malarai deaths since, is a bit simple - and I mean that in the most pejorative possible sense.)
You might well be right about this EWG group being bad news (there are some seriously mis-aimed and even crazy enviro groups out there.) But if you continue claiming that they're out to kill the world's poor you will continue to be ignored, but be able to feel smug and superior, which may be your "win condition" anyway. If so, enjoy it, you're pathetic.
If not, look at for instance Guest 16, 17 - Actually guest 4 is possibly the best and most damning - similar points, more or less, but less blithering. The second you compare banning DDT to massacring Jews, or that anyone who tells you to calm the f down is trying to "make nice with the enemy" , you've made it pretty clear that either you are an idiot, or you believe your audience is - neither one works.
I'm *more* than willing to believe a lot of these enviro toxicity groups exaggerate their claims, and that some of them are crackpots. But I mentally discount any crackpot allegations made by, well, crackpots.
I tentatively invoke Godwin's Law.
Is there any way we can enforce this or its DCist addendum?
BostonRay says: RE: EWG. What you see at work here is one of the main tricks all these activist groups use to get their name on the news. Name in news = $funding. I saw this on Fox News 5 and was shocked they even reported this press release as the Environmental Working Group has absolutely no scientific credibility.
One can measure, through gas chromatography, the presence of a chemical almost to the molecule. When they get a number like .00001 parts per million and get a second number like .00002 they rush out a press release headline claiming a 100% increase in that chemical. People freak! The truth is that a minute increase to a minute number remains a minute amount and a danger to no one. It's just a classic trick. The anti-smokers also use this method to their benefit. The press should be ashamed of themselves for reporting it.