User Comments

1. 

   8/30/09

   timethief

   My water comes from my own privately owned well which is regularly tested and continuously monitored. I bear all expenses out of pocket for maintaining the well, the deep well submersible pump and testing. Suggesting that I may not be among those who care about the environment would be completely off-base. I have been an environmentalist all of my life as were my parents and grandparents before me.

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2. 

   8/30/09

   owlbarn

   I don't have a well like TT (I would love too) but I try to do what I can by living in an apt. I consciously think of doing things which will help the Earth. I switch off AC and open the windows when it's nice outside, I take pride in recycling, walk to places instead of hopping in car, reuse paper, buy furniture at second-hand store etc. I wish we all could do one 'save the earth' deed each day.

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3. 

   8/30/09

   timethief

   Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S.
   updated Mon, March 10, 2008.
   A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
   ...Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.
   
   One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.
   www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23503485/
   
   Scientists Hone Technique To Safeguard Water Supplies
   A new method to detect toxins and contaminates in municipal water supplies has undergone further refinements by two Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers according to a news announcement made on August 29, 2009.
   www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090828143554.htm

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   1. 

      8/30/09

      trailofpen

      I hate corporate waste dumping. People should be in jail for these kinds of incidents. Hell, in China they sentenced 2 executives linked to the tainted milk product scandal to death. I'm not saying we need to go to that extreme, but seriously, are these people untouchable here?
   2. 

      8/30/09

      timethief

      Ah ah ah --- this is not about corporate waste dumping. This is about drugs ingested by humans and expelled into toilets. The toilet water in municipal waste waters systems (sewers) then travels down through the watershed recharge zones, rivers, streams, lakes etc. into the deep water aquifers that are the point of origin for drinking water supplies.
      
      You are subject to drinking water that may contain the residual drugs left from who use pharmaceuticals as they have been prescribed to do.
      
      Forty years ago, birth control pills first hit the market, and since then the drug residue has been expelled into toilets and into the environment.
      
      Human hormones mess with male fish
      Researchers writing in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists reported that male fish became “feminized” when exposed to human hormones. Some of the fish, a type of fathead minnow, produced early-stage eggs in their testes while others actually developed tissues for both reproductive organs.
      
      How would fish be exposed to female human hormones? Through treated or untreated municipal wastewater, of course. It seems that widespread use of birth control pills has elevated the amount of estrogenic substances going into our waste stream. Remember, things that go down our toilets don’t just disappear. They can actually survive simple sewage treatment processes and end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans.
   3. 

      8/30/09

      trailofpen

      www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26706059/
      "Tons of drugs dumped into wastewater"
   4. 

      8/30/09

      trailofpen

      www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30267705/
      "Factories dumping drugs into sewage"
   5. 

      8/30/09

      timethief

      Oh my -- even more bad news. How depressing Thanks seems like an odd word to use, but thanks for posting the links.
4. 

   8/30/09

   trailofpen

   Wait, doesn't the ice caps melting mean more water? When there is an excess of something, the price usually goes down.

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5. 

   8/30/09

   owlbarn

   Yeah. Melting ice caps mean more water but it also means floods. I don't think drowning people will care about water price so much :|

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   1. 

      8/30/09

      trailofpen

      I've always had this plan, in case California falls into the ocean after a herculean earthquake as some have predicted. I'm going to live on a boat, a boat that can flip it's damn self over, and when the floods come, I'm just going to be riding the waves all the way to Las Vegas!