Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pensacola Utility Director: "What, Me Worry?"

Pensacola's water utility director has gone national with his technical defense explaining why Pensacola's drinking water ranks as the worst in all of the U.S.:
“If it doesn’t violate the law, I don’t really pay much attention to it,” said Stephen Sorrell, executive director of Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, which serves Pensacola, Fla. Data show that his system has delivered water containing multiple chemicals at concentrations that research indicates are associated with health risks.
He doesn't pay attention to health risks, as long as they are 'legal'? How embarrassing! How incompetent!

NYT reporter Charles Duhigg today exposes that defense for the humbuggery it is ["That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy"]. "The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal."

The article is long and detailed, but it comes down to this un-surprising point: the law can't keep up with science. Neither can a utility director who "doesn't pay much attention."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 'laws' aren't funded enough to keep up with science, and besides this is the panhandle where most folks could care less what is in their drinking water. Bah humbug.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Thanks for all the wonderful posts.

Anonymous said...

Our leaders are busy with building a baseball stadium which will fix everything.

Nobody will check school system-it's awful, but the school board has accumulated a lot of condemned buildings with our tax dollars. They've been watching them rot or burn or be inhabited by vagrants. They love to own property they aren't using.

water system-awful

sewer plant- being moved after being on life support for a decade and stinking up the city.

Our leaders have better things to do. They aren't wasting time on details like this, silly.

Play Ball