Poisoning with Chloramine -- and a 33
Disturbing:
The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is more than halfway through introducing a new chemical disinfectant to the city’s water supply, but the planned change has sparked anger among some residents who say the new compound isn’t proven safe, and could cause dangerous lead leaching.Chloramine is NASTY, and this is a disturbing trend. Stupid EPA.
Last month, the RWSA announced its decision to replace chlorine with chloramine, a compound of chlorine and ammonia, in the second phase of water treatment in the city. According to RWSA Executive Director Thomas Frederick, the switch was prompted by stricter regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. The RWSA currently uses chlorine for both the initial disinfectant process and stage-two “backup” water cleansing, meant to keep drinking water pathogen-free as it travels through pipes. But Frederick said chlorine produces too many toxic byproducts to be an acceptable backup disinfectant, and according to the EPA, chloramine is an acceptable substitute.
In a memo to the RWSA Board of Directors, Frederick reported the EPA has written that when proper chlorine to ammonia ratios and appropriate pH balance are maintained, chloramine can be a “practical and effective secondary disinfectant.”
The memo detailed costs of chloramine in comparison to other systems, with the chloramine process being the least costly at $3.3 million in initial costs.
posted by spooked at 5:06 PM
6 Comments:
I would sugeest preplacing "stupid EPA" with murdering criminally psychopathic EPA.
When was the last time the EPA actually made a decision or pronouncement for the betterment of the population at large?
Chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, air quality at WTC, fukushima radiation - take your pick, the EPA seems to consistently pick the 'practical and effective' solution that ensures people get poisoned.
they switched our water from chlorine to chloramine years ago no one in my neighborhood has ever gotten sick from drinking the tap water. frankly, if tap water wasn't treated with some form of disinfectant then it would be a horrible sickening mess.
7:40-- Right... well, I agree with what you say. The big question is whether the EPA does more harm than good. My feeling, as a lefty, is that the EPA is just corrupt, and doesn't do enough proper regulation. Conservatives of course want to abolish the EPA. But I don't trust business to regulate itself at all. The question is whether the EPA does ANY good at all. Are they actively deleterious or just useless at protecting us?
6:34 pm-- chloramine is not so much about causing acute problems as chronic poisoning.
The EPA can't protect the environment or the people because they are bullied, bribed and threatened by soul-less trans global corporations and corrupt legislators (who are also soul-less and bribed, bullied and threatened by corporations).
The regulatory framework is so complex and ambiguous that they can never get enough 'runs on the board' through judicial processes to get the vultures off their backs.
We all know that prosecutions get tied up in Court for years chewing up hugh portions of budgets in the EPA etc, and invariably these cases finally end up being resolved in an out of court settlement that can't be made public and therefore does not form part of the legal precedent to be used against polluters and poisoners in the future!
The only people they can actually exercise any authority over is your average peasant farmer or small businessman who can barely scratch a living from the earth or through trade anymore. And, that is why you end up with ridiculous prosecutions for infractions that are miniscule in comparison to the wholesale poisoning of the planet by industry.
Same with the FDA's increasingly frequent attacks against organic producers and distributors, nutritional advisors and natural health practitioners over "public safety" concerns.
EPA may be lame and even deleterious, but without it we would have a govt/industrial complex running wild and an environment on a par with india, mexico or china.
good points, both 3:59am and 4:36pm... the EPA clearly is definitely worse than nothing for some people-- but overall, does it do anything to rein in big polluters? I'd like to think so, anyway.
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