by Barbara Minton
(The Best Years in Life) Water is fundamental to life, so many would agree that having plenty of good clean tap water is a basic human right. But a constant stream of headlines has kept us alert to the toxic chemicals and pollutants showing up in tap water. So how can you can find out the true state of the tap water coming out of your faucets? The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit organization devoted to human and environmental health has created a data base that rates all water companies in the U.S. and lists the specific hazards of each so they can be addressed.
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Since this initiative began in 2004, drinking water quality analysis of almost 20 million records obtained from state water officials by EWG has revealed 315 chemical pollutants in the tap water we bath in and drink. The group recently spotlighted one of the most dangerous findings: the tap water of more than 30 US cities contains hexavalent chromium (chromium-6), a probable carcinogen made famous in the film Erin Brockovich. This chemical is linked to leukemia and other cancers as well as liver and kidney damage.
There have been no standards set for more than half of the chemicals identified by EWG, meaning there are no health or safety regulations acting as safeguards, and these chemicals can be present in water in any amount. Although the federal government does have guidelines for others, 49 of these regulated chemicals have been found in various places at levels exceeding those guidelines. There have been no new government drinking water standards set since 2001.
In fact, the water utilities that provide our water have spent 19 times more on water treatment chemicals each year than the federal government spends on protecting the environment from pollution what would make this excessive chemicalization unnecessary.
In the past, EWG has called for the federal government to conduct a national assessment of drinking water quality and set pollution prevention priorities and projects to restore water quality. The group has also called for consumers to be alerted to the pollutants in their water. The lack of response to these calls is what gave EWG the impetus to create this data base, which is the largest drinking water quality database in existence, covering 48,000 communities in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
How the rating work
Water utility ratings for cities with populations over 250,000 were based on three factors: total number of chemicals detected since 2004; percentages of chemicals found; and highest average level for an individual pollutant relative to legal limits or national average amounts, including common pollutants such as disinfection byproducts, nitrates and arsenic.
Since the data base became available to the public in December, 2009 EWG has received new water test results from several utilities.