But when I read things like this, I think to myself- “Gee, maybe a good use of some of that $200 billion for job creation could be well spent improving our drinking water and sewage systems. Or repairing bridges. Or, well, any of the thousands of things I see crumbling around us.” This just seems insane:
More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.
That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.
Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.
Of course, the Republican response would be to defund the EPA so we wouldn’t have to know about the violations, and then spend that money and the 200 billion on tax cuts for Jesus.
dmsilev
Soshalism! The market will provide! No free welfare ride! Sarah Palin! Cut taxes! Block anything and everything in the Senate!
I think that pretty much covers it. Where ‘it’ is ‘the GOP reaction to any domestic issue and most foreign issues not involving blowing up brown people’.
-dms
peach flavored shampoo
What you’ve blockquoted will most certainly be used by Evian and Dasani in marketing blurbs.
And the rubes will then purchase, blissfully ignorant that the water in those bottles are almost without exception from municipal sources, full of arsenic, labeled material, and other trace elements.
Capitalism.
Keith
If ever there was a reason to abolish the Death Tax once and for all, *this* is it!
The Moar You Know
@peach flavored shampoo: Evian spelled backwards is “naive”.
Just sayin’
Ash Can
Actually, the Republican response was to defund the EPA. And loosen the drinking water standards. And fail to enforce the regulations that remained on the books. Because you can’t have government interfering with people’s lives, yo.
r€nato
The Republican response would also be, “SEE? We told you government can’t do anything right!”
Of course, people are murdered every single day of the year in this country, but nobody advances the argument that we should therefore abolish those useless laws against murder.
Rick Taylor
If you have money, you can drink bottled water. As Limbaugh would say, what’s the difference between drinking clean water and having a house on the beach (interview with William Shatner)?
Kryptik
The legacy of 8 years of Republican environmental policy encapsulated in one issue.
Is it any wonder that I drink soda most of the time?
Kryptik
@r€nato:
Republicans’ Motto:
Government sucks, put us in charge of the government, and we’ll prove it!
wilfred
Two or three days ago I watched a debate on Press TV about the Af surge. The participants included a woman from Answer, I think, and some unctuous, eye-rolling, tut-tutting hack from the Adminstration. At one point the woman said she was from Jersey City and that people there had been advised to boil their tap water before using it. I was genuinely startled to hear that.
She went on to say that the country’s infrastructure was collapsing and here we were pumping billions more into endless wars.
But hey, what the fuck, right?
SGEW
It’s all fun and games until you have a cholera epidemic.
Rob
But Gregg Easterbrook says tap water is totally safe and delicious so you’d be crazy to buy bottled water.
Keith G
@Rick Taylor: Good take.
I have been annoying many of my Rush-listening friends by sending it to them. Many of them love Shatner and I gleefully imagine the looks on their face as Kirk tears Rush a new one.
The Moar You Know
This obviously calls for a War Against Water, or as I prefer to call it, “aqueous terrorism”.
Scott H
@Kryptik: yea, ‘cuz the water that goes into the sodas is more, umm…
ooh yick.
Keith G
@Keith G: Where’s me edit?
Bubblegum Tate
Once again: Spending money domestically to improve our infrastructure or help people is EVIL DISGUSTING SOSHULISM!
Spending money blowing up people on the other side of the world for nebulous, dishonest reasons is THE MOST PATRIOTIC THING EVAH!
Kennedy
I am cracking up over here.
You know what we really should use the $200 billion for? Improving the infrastructure and drinking water standards in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the cost of freedom.
Why improve your situation at home when you can write blank checks in the name of nation building?
Svensker
@wilfred:
Yes, I lived there in the 80s and 90s and we would periodically have to boil our water. When you turn on the tap and what comes out is brown — well, we used a lot of bottled water.
But why not spend that money in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Kosovo? Much more fun.
Napoleon
In theory it sounds like a great thing to spend money on but if the idea is stimulis then unless the various governments have already spent the millions of dollars on plans for the plans for the upgrade you are looking at years before anyone is going to be in a position to put a shovel in the ground on the project.
Kryptik
@Scott H:
You’re misunderstanding me.
I drink sodas because at least I’ll die early, away from the stupid of the Earth, drinking something that tastes good.
Zifnab
If people wanted clean water, they’d pay for it. Supply and demand! It’s the government monopoly on “free” water that is causing the concerns to begin with. An enterprising individual would be providing safe, healthy water to the masses (possibly by putting it in plastic bottles and selling it in grocery stores) but they CAN’T because of the cruel and burdensome government regulations.
Cathy W
One thing I wish the report would clarify – are these violations primarily cases of “whoops, our treatment process had a problem for a few minutes, and we detected and fixed it ASAP, sorry for any inconvenience”, or is there a lot of “they just didn’t care” going on? Both cases count as a violation of the law, but I know which bothers me more.
It also bothers me that this will be used to say “OMG municipal drinking water is unsafe!!!” rather than “OMG the EPA isn’t enforcing the law!!!”
(FWIW – the Times article seemed to be harping on arsenic and radium. Both of these generally get into municipal systems because they occur naturally in the groundwater that’s used as a source, and both are a PITA to treat for.)
SGEW
@The Moar You Know:
[Obligatory Reference]
General Jack D. Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can’t quite see what you’re getting at, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Water, that’s what I’m getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth’s surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
General Jack D. Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
General Jack D. Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes. (more nervous laughter)
[Video here]
wilfred
It’s not all for Jesus, you know:
It’s not just Papists, Cole. Fair play’s a jewel.
Graeme
I think this is one of many elephants in the American room. I don’t understand why water quality isn’t a concern. There are stacks of infrastructure projects just waiting for funding, it seems to me.
If you missed it, the guy who did the NYT series on water quality was on NPR’s Fresh Air, and the interview was quite good.
Buffalopundit
You’re just a fan of socialized water.
Irony Abounds
Listening to Kudlow and the rest of the supply-slider wackos on CNBC every morning blather on about how we need tax cuts so that businesses with then hire makes my head explode. The one recession where tax cuts were the primary source of recovery stimulus was the 2001 recession. It took almost FOUR years to get the jobs back that were lost in that recession, almost twice as long as any other post-war recession. This recession, is much steeper in job losses, and once again the first weapon used by Bush in 2008 was tax cuts, which, as we have seen, did nothing. The stupidity of these people is beyond comprehension.
Kennedy
@Zifnab: Zifnab is right. What we really need is to abolish the EPA and/or deregulate the water industry, and let the free market decide our water conditions.
Our interests would be much better served by allowing Goldman Sachs to manage our water supply than our pathetically inept federal government.
John Cole
@Cathy W: My dad was a mayor of a small town for 22 years, and one of the constant struggles was to get the sewage facilities up to regulation. He was constantly juggling things, writing grant proposals, and working his ass off to make sure our sewage treatment was up to snuff. We finally got first class facilities after decades of trying, and we got a grant.
Now Republicans would say “see- look at the struggle those unfunded mandates put on your small town.”
Those of us living there would say- “Thank God someone at the EPA realized dumping shit in our creek and polluting our water table was a bad thing.”
Evinfuilt
Corporate Tax cuts for all!!!
Gut the EPA, the free market invisible hand-job will make sure they don’t pollute. As long as zombies can’t sue, they’ll be fine.
Kryptik
@John Cole:
Don’t you realize though that if you couldn’t afford to not have shit in your water, you deserve to have shit in your water? Free Market, bitches! Alger and Bootstraps!
Sorry, John, trying my best Douthat impression.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
The water treatment system is just another front in the Global War on Christmas.
Roger Moore
@Ash Can:
Fixt.
Kryptik
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
It’s Aqueous Fascism, dammit, telling us what we’re supposed to drink and not supposed to drink. We should be free to drink raw sewage and waste from our faucets if we want! WOLVERINES!!
Evinfuilt
@Zifnab:
The true irony, is a healthy dose of our water pollution is due to the manufacture and disposal of water bottles.
Kryptik
@Roger Moore:
Don’t forget the Furrin Brown Peoples.
Bubblegum Tate
@Kryptik:
WIN!
BC
Public sanitation – clean water and sewage treatment – are the backbones of a healthy society. More important even than marriage between one man and one woman. Spread the word.
Keith G
@Napoleon:
Having worked on the political side of these issues, many cities have the plans in place and are awaiting funding. Yes, in some cases there will need to be updated studies due to changed conditions, but I would be suprized if ground could not be broken on many projects in time for Spring.
kay
We’re getting storm sewer repair with stimulus money. Finally.
The township trustees are all farmers, and if there’s one thing farmers know how to do, it’s get federal money.
I make sure to bring it up with local conservatives. I think the huge stimulus sign on the main drag must piss them off. The signs are a great idea. I suggest we put one up in front of every recipient of federal funding.
People should know what they’re buying, right?
And which recipients bitch about taxes :)
Would be a LOTTA signs among the cornfields, here. Park it right next to the “don’t tread on me” flag.
Senyordave
When I read things like this I alternate between:
1. My blood boiling because the political system stinks (these days both parties suck, but the Democrats suck like warm beer sucks and the Republicans suck like actually shoving my hand into a hornets nest sucks) and
2. Thinking that if the dumbasses in states like Alabama want to drink poisoned water so be it, I’ll continue to live in a county that I know regularly tests its water and is willing to pay for infrastructure upkeep and improvement.
But then I realize that if it were just a few adult morons affected the so be it, but there are others in the mix.
Upsets me that there are so many stupid people out there. Was the lower middle class better off after 8 years of Bush?
Mnemosyne
@wilfred:
That’s one of the biggest reasons the civil war in Northern Ireland dragged out for as long as it has — stupid Americans have been sending money to the IRA for decades. No progress was made until those funds started drying up after the London attacks made it impossible for Americans to continue to pretend to themselves they were funding freedom fighters and not terrorists.
Scott H
@Kryptik: ahh, I see. Not hoping that the chemical additives will offset the watery contaminants, just a zen-like acceptance of the filth, tarted up with corn syrup.
Kennedy
@Kryptik: It is also curious that this happened solely on Obama’s watch. Is he trying to poison us? Or is this bare-knuckled, Chicago pol just trying to kill off his enemies and dissenters? I don’t know! I’m not saying Obama is committing genocide by dumping toxins into our water supply! I’m just asking the question! I think these questions are fair and deserve to be asked, because I’m sorry…I just love my country so much.
I’ll see your Douthat and raise you a Beck.
Sasha
@Bubblegum Tate:
Almost.
Spending money domestically to improve our infrastructure or help people is Socialism.
Spending money internationally to improve an occupied nation’s infrastructure or help its people is Patriotic.
ChrisS
Water infrastructure spending only counts when it’s for a pipeline to provide farmers with irrigation water or drinking water to people who choose to live in a desert.
Biscuits
Way back, Lewis Black did a rant on the Daily Show about something similar to this. His response: Arsenic, makes water taste zestier!
Rick Taylor
Liberal.
Rick Taylor
I’ll bet you want to monitor volcanoes too.
Kennedy
@kay:
I thought this was already the case?
We’ve got a sign up at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, because we got stimulus funds to connect our hapless light rail system from its current route to the airport. Apparently that was always the plan, but the program was so over budget and over schedule that they couldn’t afford it. It’ll be pretty convenient when it’s completed.
Good thing my fuckwit Senators Kyl and McCain voted against the stimulus only to have it benefit their state anyway.
Michael
Conservatism loves inheriting infrastructuree from liberals – it then claims that all revenues resulting from the use of said infrastructure are the result of the bootstrapped individual initiative of the douchenozzle class of connected inheritors of great wealth, and refuses to maintain or improve that infrastructure. They then whine about anybody who does talk about improvement.
That’s the way it has always been.
Fuck it – bring on the asteroid or revolution or something. We’re not worth saving. We are a culture irredeemably committed to recklessly satiating the whims and desires of wealthy assholes who don’t know or understand genuine sacrifice, nor can they brook it in their households, even if it won’t change their lifestyle by one iota.
Tsulagi
You drink the water you have, arsenic and radioactive shit included, not the clean water you wished you had.
Okay, now I feel better about buying and changing the expensive filters in the water filtration setup the SO insisted on in our house. If she sees this story I’m sure I’ll hear a “told you so.”
There was no regulatory control or oversight during what was supposed to be the glorious starting years of the 1,000 year Republican rule. It was all left up to the honor system. Some have more honor than others.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Graeme:
Next up, a segment on air pollution levels, to be broadcast on NPR’s Clean Water.
Just Some Fuckhead
Safe drinking water is just a cover for teh socia1ists to control our every move. Did you know the Safe Drinking Water Act of 2003 was like eleventy billion pages long?? Why??? Here’s my solution: make Congress drink whatever water they are trying to foist on the rest of us.
I want my country back!!!!!!!!!!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Bad news, dude – that ain’t water that’s being foisted.
Does the phrase “Don’t piss on my boots and tell me it’s raining!” sound familiar?
Zifnab
@Sasha:
Only if it goes to god fearing Republican contractors. We can’t let hard earned tax payer money get spent on a bunch of ACORN thugs or wasted on Pell Grants or dropped into Africa without getting channeled through half a dozen Christian organizations.
And besides, if the money doesn’t go to Republicans, how are they going to afford the teenage rapist shipping crates?
Bull$hit Point$
Considering that GOP has been recycling the same B.S. talking points since before Reagan’s day, it’s little wonder they;’re wearing a little thin. And remember – it doesn’t matter if you honestly believe the Talking Points or if they are logical – you just memorize what’s on the memo and stay on topic until whoever is trying to talk reason to you just shrugs their shoulders and gives up. YOU WIN!!!
i.e. – how the GOP will fix EVERYTHING of only we’d listen.
“Cut regulations. Freeze spending. Cut taxes. No new taxes. That’s the plan”
comrade scott's agenda of rage
“Tax Cuts For Jesus” would make an excellent christian rock band name.
Christian rock, now there’s an oxymoron.
Blue Raven
A friend of mine spent a couple of years living in Nevada. Her water supply came from a source that was downstream from the local mines. Her tap water stunk of sulfur and tasted like metal. Showering was an exercise in drying her skin out. Anyone whining about the mere existence of bottled water is cheerfully invited to live where she did for a month and get back to me about their experiences.
kay
@Kennedy:
I want to extend the sign idea. To all recipients of federal funding. Dollar amount and recipient.
We can count. I’d split the count up into precincts, here.
I live in a rural area. I think the results of the federal-dependent survey might be enlightening to voters, if we want to talk about producers and consumers.
Comrade Dread
And further privatize the water utilities, because corporations always act with rational self-interest and would never ever do anything bad and then lie about it and cover it up after the fact to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Plus, you could always opt out of a company’s water services by building a cistern or digging a well, you lazy commie bastard.
Sly
Privatizing the water systems is indeed the way to go. It really worked out well in Bolivia.
D-Chance.
Of course, the Republican response would be to…
Of course, the Democrat response is what counts, since THEY are in charge… and are doing squat.
But, strawmen make for easier punditry among the rank and file…
Seanly
Don’t get me started on our infrastructure issues. I’ll just send you to the American Society of Civil Engineers (disclosure: I am a member) website for the 2009 Infrastructure Report card.
At the bottom of the page there is a neat little table showing the shortfall in funding over the next 5 years. It does include the ARRA funds. The amounts shown are not to improve or build extra capacity – it is the amount to merely maintain* what we have.
Forget all the
irrational screamingsmokescreens about cutting the fat or earmarks. The fat is mostly trimmed. Earmarks, at least in my field of transportation, are actually few and far between.In addition, the system is already about as privatized as it can get. Consulting engineers (such as myself) do most of the design. Private contractors do most of the work through qualification-based low bid. State or federal agencies serve mostly to regulate and enforce codes and specifications. Often times, consulting engineers supplement the agencies by providing construction manangement & inspection services. Oh, and while we behave ethically, we are in this business to make a profit.
Even if we had another 2-year infrastructure program, i have a concern that we’d then shortchange infrastructure on the other end. The highway spending bill has expired. We need more money just to maintain the system and not just for one year or two, but a continuing fund for on-going maintenance, replacement and smart/sustainable improvements.
* – By maintain, I don’t mean that an existing item may remain in place. Often replacement is a cheaper option than rehabilitaion especially when upgrading to modern codes is required.
drillfork
Ya know, this kinda ties into the whole climate change denialism. If no one drops dead on the spot, how can the water possibly be contaminated?…
drillfork
And where did the Edit function go?…
Seanly
@drillfork:
Yeah, my last sentence wasn’t meant to be in bold – I was using an asterik to note what I meant by “maintain”
ruemara
I won’t call you crazy. I’ll call you KA-RazZy!
Improving public systems is teh sockushialism
Soprano2
I work for a medium-sized municipality in the sewer department. If you dropped $10 million on us this year we have a list of sewer mains needing work that would spend all the money, and we could probably spend even more. Many of those projects could begin early next year. The storm water engineers have compiled a list of storm sewer needs that totals $75 million. So yeah, it wouldn’t be hard to get that infrastructure money spent within the next year or two.
I have no doubt that every city of any size has the same kind of list that we have. The neglect of any “invisible” infrastructure is pathetic and criminal. Our PTB have kept sewer rates artifically low, because they don’t want to piss off the ratepayers too much, which means that when we finally have to make massive improvements they’re going to be screaming about the huge increases in their bills.
Meanwhile, even though the voters in this state voted to direct vehicle licensing fees to the state highway department a few years ago, the state DOT is already whining that they’re out of money and need more massive amounts of money, which they’ll probably get since everyone can see that the roads need work.
trollhattan
You mean the stuff in toilets? I drink Brawndo!
Arclite
Nah, the republicans just want to support the free market: everyone needs to start drinking bottled water. No more of this communist municipal water shit. Oh, those plastic water bottles cause birth defects and cancer? We need trail lawyer reform!
Little Dreamer
@Rick Taylor:
I used to live on a freshwater lake in the the Catskills in Jersey. The lake had a beach right next door to my house. I used to swim in that lake in the summer (and pee in it from time to time), ice skate on it in the winter, boat on it at other times, but there is no way I would ever drink that water.
Little Dreamer
@Kennedy:
TZ and I decided to take the light rail out to the airport to see various art exhibits in three terminals a few weeks ago. We rode on more buses than we did trains. We do thank the Phoenix Light Rail for placing a station opposite the Old Spaghetti Factory though. That was a great dinner we had on the way back from all that bus hopping.
Seanly
@Soprano2:
You don’t work for the City of Columbia in lovely SC, do you? SCDOT is out of money coz the gas tax hasn’t been raised in over 20 years.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
The hapless light rail is carrying more passengers than was estimated before the system was built.
So, WTF are you talking about?
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@Little Dreamer:
Also, the other guy’s assertion that the project was “over budget” and that’s why they didn’t connect it to Sky Harbor, is probably a blatant lie. Planning at the late stages never included the light rail going into the airport, it was counter to the whole light rail concept that drove the project from the get-go. It would require several additional stops, several miles of additional track, and basically hold all the workday commute passengers hostage to the airport situation, and add ten or fifteen minutes to each Mesa-Phoenix trip for a very small number of passengers’ convenience. This was all explained years ago when the final route map was made public. Airport hookup is basically the same for the light rail passenger as it is for the passenger who has to drive to airport, park his car, and then board the same buses that the lightrail passenger now takes, to get to the terminals.
The present model was sensible, and cost efficient. Whoever wrote that other stuff, above, is just full of shit.
Little Dreamer
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Well, they will never have enough money to build that rail system into the airport so long as the ticketing terminals are down so often.
I was joking, of course.
The map for the airport rail plans was drawn up long before I came to Phoenix. I trust you know more about what is going on here than I do.
Soprano2
@Seanly:
Nope, I work for the city of Springfield, MO. It’s about 30 miles north of the hellhole that is Branson, MO. Or, you could call it “Wingnut Central”.
Wagner19 59
Actually, the Rethuglican response would be “Great, this is exactly what we want!”!!! Rethuglican spending is GREAT. Anything spent by spineless Democrats is anti-American.
We can’t have anything good coming from the left, so, we lie and lie and lie, and hope that we don’t do too much damage to the ReThuglic, until will shill the next batch of marks.