americanprogressaction.org
YOUR ICED TEA SHOULD'T BE THAT BROWN
"It doesn't take a medical degree to know that drinking poop is bad for us," writes Jeffrey Griffiths, a member of the EPA's National Drinking Water Advisory
Council, in the Boston Globe. That hasn't stopped the Bush administration from
proposing a new policy that "would allow sewage treatment plants to
discharge inadequately treated human waste into lakes, rivers, streams,
and coastal waters
(http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/18/dont_drink_the_sewage/)
," which ends up in our tap water.
Sure, pathogens from human waste can
harm people in even small doses -- particularly children, the elderly,
and people with compromised immune systems. But the administration
thinks that by weakening sewage restrictions, it can save a few bucks and
"further defer or avoid maintenance, or improvements, to their sewer and
rainfall collection systems." There's no way we're drinking to that.