Environmental Strategy

I feel that we need to better the opportunities to guide our country towards a clean energy future in which will create jobs, strengthen our economy, and protect our communities and environment.
Foreign oil constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes, and leaves us dependent on unstable regions,"

"These urgent dangers are eclipsed only by the long-term threat of climate change, which - unless we act - will lead to drought and famine abroad, devastating weather patterns and terrible storms on our shores, and the disappearance of our coastline at home.

The ominous signs of climate change we see today are a warning of dire economic and social consequences for us all, but especially for the poor of the world."
"The path to finding solutions is to bring together the finest, most passionate minds to work on the problem in a coordinated effort and to give researchers the resources commensurate with the challenge.

First, the agency must adopt, by December 15, a new rule requiring treatment and monitoring for suppliers drawing from surface waters. This is to prevent Cryptosporidium and other parasites from contaminating tap water. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cryptosporidium is one of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States. In 1993, high Cryptosporidium levels in Milwaukee's drinking water supply sickened more than 400,000 residents. More recently, several smaller outbreaks have sickened hundreds of people.

Second, EPA agreed to adopt a rule limiting the acceptable level of toxins created by the drinking water disinfection process itself. Disinfection is necessary to remove bacteria and pathogens from water supplies, but without proper precautions it leaves behind byproducts that can cause cancer, and, potentially, miscarriages and birth defects.

Finally, EPA agreed to publish a rule no later than August 2006 requiring systems using groundwater to disinfect it when necessary.

"Americans will finally have the health protections that Congress told EPA to provide years ago," said Earth justice attorney Jennifer Chavez. "This agreement will guarantee that the agency sets the necessary standards for drinking water that will reduce illnesses and protect public health."

After several serious outbreaks of waterborne diseases in U.S. cities, Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996 to, as EPA has stated, "provide strengthened protections to ensure that American families have clean, safe tap water." The amendments required EPA to adopt regulations to reduce microbial pathogens within a specific time frame, but the deadline for a number of the final regulations has come and gone. For example, the final rule for treating surface water sources was supposed to have been completed by 2000.

EPA estimates its surface water treatment rule alone would prevent more than a million illnesses and as many as 141 deaths annually. The agency estimates its rule for toxic disinfection byproducts would prevent hundreds from dying from bladder cancer, would reduce the incidence of other cancers, and could cut the number of miscarriages from 4,700 to 1,100 a year.
"Every year that EPA delayed on these rules, Americans' health was at risk from exposure to these parasites and toxic chemicals," said Dr. Bob Gould, a physician and president of SF Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility.
"We are very pleased to hear that the agency will finally begin adopting rules that will protect our drinking water supplies, and we hope the agency will make good on its promise this time."

What A World We Live In.