On a national survey of drinking water quality in 47,667 cities and towns across America, released late today, Pensacola received a grade of 100!! Isn't that great? the local real estate agents will be saying tomorrow. Why, that's the equivalent of an A+ in every school of higher education in the country.
Not, however, on the grading scale used by the Environmental Working Group. Their "100" means Pensacola has the most polluted drinking water in the nation. The absolute worst out of nearly 50,000 cities tested.
This was no one-off, either. The local water quality problem is chronic and desperate. Between 2004 and 2009, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection conducted 74,897 tests of our drinking water. They found 45 different pollutants (compared with a nationwide average of 4 per community) and 21 chemicals (anywhere else, the average was 8) that exceed federal and state health agencies guidelines.
The excuse of the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) doubtless will be that while Pensacola water certainly exceeds every known health limit, ECUA hasn't broken the law. At least they haven't been caught, yet.
But when a city's drinking water finishes dead last in a nationwide, multi-year water quality study in which local and state officials played a significant part, you know something is seriously, seriously wrong.
Care to drink to that? We wouldn't. Not with anything that comes out of a local tap, anyway.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
although there were 45 pollutants none exceeded the safe standards
and so tasty too!
Coming from Abilene, TX the water quality may be better in Texas it but has so many dissolved solids in it that it is horribly undrinkable on taste alone. I say buy a good PUR or Zero Water filter and have at it.
Post a Comment