FILTER THE CHEMICAL SOUP IN NEW JERSEY’S DRINKING WATER [View All]

[ensho]

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1397


New Jersey should filter its drinking water to remove hundreds of chemicals, most of which are unregulated, from its drinking water supply, according to a rulemaking petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The plan to screen many chemicals out of tap water was actually developed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) but has been in limbo for the last six years.

State testing has detected “approximately 600” chemical compounds “in 199 samples collected” including five brands of bottled water, according to a recent DEP white paper. The vast majority of these chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, and cleaning products, are not regulated by either the federal or state government. As a result, there is no regulatory effort to reduce or eliminate them from drinking water.

The April 2010 DEP white paper, entitled “Investigations Related to a ‘Treatment-Based’ Regulatory Approach to Address Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water,” advocates used granular activated carbon filtration and other techniques to remove most chemicals in drinking water, noting that carbon filtration alone removed more than half of identified chemicals.

“Pre-treatment of drinking water is not a panacea but would be a major step forward,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, a former DEP analyst, noting that no single technique or combination of techniques will filter all chemicals out of drinking water. “The alternative is having the public serve as a chemical sponge for hundreds of unregulated compounds coming out of our spigots every day.”
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jeez Louise

they have to do something because in N.J. the underground water is forever contaminated.

babies, kids and preg. women are drinking that stuff and suffering the consequences.

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and

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http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0683.html

Advocates Claim Atlanta Violating Safe Drinking Water Act

A group of Atlanta neighborhood activists have been engaged in a years-long battle to get the City of Atlanta to seek a permit for the shafts--through which waste water is sent into deep underground tunnels--something they believe is a requirement of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The tunnels go long distances to treatment plants, where the water is treated at the surface and then is discharged to a river or stream.

The first problem is that non-drinkable water, including sewage, is not supposed to be injected underground into tunnels, according to the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40, Section 144.12, "Prohibition of movement of fluid into underground sources of drinking water."

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Advocates are particularly concerned about the part of Atlanta's sewer system which is combined, meaning that sewage and stormwater travel in the same tunnel to the treatment plant.
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they also said that some of the tunnels were never given a permit.

Obama and Team's money for redoing sewer/water/etc. will hopefully help Atlanta and N.J.

just because your drinking water looks clear doesn't mean is.