This isn't breaking news for most who pick up a newspaper every now and again, or tune into national, or even local, news a few evenings a week...

The resource we most take for granted, the one that we find a hollow comfort in knowing makes up 2/3 of our planet, is becoming less available and less safe to drink — before our very eyes.

The New York Times recently opened a story about contaminated drinking water with this startling line: The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.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 Safe Drinking Water Act was originally passed in 1974 following the discovery of carcinogens, dangerous bacteria, and lead in the drinking water of many major American cities. Years ago, much less was known about chemicals in drinking water and the health risks posed with small exposure over periods of time. Drinking water was considered legal, so long as it had been monitored for only 20 chemicals — and the law did not include private water wells.

The Act has since been updated to include 91 contaminants by which "safe drinking water" is regulated...

But the alarming bit of the story is that more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to the EPA... hundreds of which, through research and scientific study by the government and independent scientists, have been identified with risk of cancer among other diseases... and not one chemical has been added to the list of regulated chemicals since 2000.

According to an analysis by the New York Times of the results from more than 19 million drinking water tests from Washington, D.C. and 45 other states with available data:

All told, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease.

The Times goes on:

Communities where the drinking water has contained chemicals that are associated with health risks include Scottsdale, Ariz.; El Paso, Tex., and Reno, Nev. Test results analyzed by The Times show their drinking water has contained arsenic at concentrations that have been associated with cancer. But that contamination did not violate the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Studies from several academic and scientific journals (Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Environmental Health Perspectives, and American Journal of Public Health, to name a few), resulted in a shared conclusion: each year, millions of people become sick from drinking contaminated water.

Local officials have tried to go beyond the call of water regulation duty and do more than what is legally required to make tap water safely drinkable. Resistance meets them at every turn, however... sometimes by the same drinkers of the water that they are trying to protect. 

The reason? People think that tap water labeled "legal" is also safe and healthy.

Why wouldn't they?

In Los Angeles, the city's director of water quality, Dr. Pankaj Parekh, is facing obstacles in reform for education regarding legal, safe drinking water.

According to Dr. Parekh, "People don't understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks," he said. "And so we encounter opposition that can become very personal... Most people don't comprehend the complicated scientific papers that describe cancer risks... And if the law is working, they don't have to," Parekh explains. "But in this new world, where pollution is so much more common, they may have to learn to understand it."

So why won't the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal and local governments, and the water drinkers (am I crazy in assuming this last group basically includes everyone?) work together to make drinking water legal and safe?

Why aren't we all on the same team in attempting to rid water of the chemicals that cause everything from stomach aches to birth defects in millions of people each year?

It's all in the fine print...

Consuming potable water that falls short of federal health guidelines (even those that haven't been updated in the last eight years) is not a guarantee that someone will develop a sickness or health issue.

Most research has led scientists and health experts to conclude that many of the currently available drinking water's risks are only a hazard after years of consumption. Some also point out that the consumption of even the most hazardous contaminants in low doses over many years does not pose what they deem "major" health risks.

And there is always the issue of cost. Some experts feel the cost of removing the smallest concentrations of chemicals from drinking water simple does not equal the benefits. The price tag on the research that goes into studying the potentially thousands of chemicals in a sample of water, which will differ from a sample only fifty miles away, in a country the size of the United States, with more than 57,000 water systems, is a hefty one. And one must take into account the time frame in testing the effects of some of these chemicals over life-long consumption.

Meanwhile, on The Hill, many efforts to help local officials like Dr. Parekh have been blocked by lobbying.

So what does one do? Obviously, no one can trade water for Coca-Cola and milk... nor should they.

It is unreasonable to think that we can ever live without drinking water. But it is more unreasonable to not demand from your local, state, and federal government that water that is "legal" also be safe.

Using a home water filter is one step you can take to remove more than what the current EPA regulations deem necessary in water regulation.

The organization is currently updating its standards and reviewing what makes drinking water drinkable, and the results should be released fairly soon, according to a statement by the Agency.

Brigid

Editor's Note: Since August, the Times has been running a series called "Toxic Waters" in which they compile research and statistics from across the United States regarding worsening pollution and regulators' response. You can check it out for yourself here.

(More information on drinking water standards is available at the EPA's website, where you can read up on the latest (2006) Health Advisory.)