This Website Will Tell You If Your Tap Water Could Be Unsafe.
With the internet never more than an arm’s length away, people have the ability to research countless products.
Cars, films, and even other people are aggregated and dissected by apps and sites for anyone to examine.
But, strangely, when it comes to the quality of a person’s drinking water, the information is often opaque — if it exists at all.
Fortunately, a new database released yesterday by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group affords those with concerns over their home’s water the ease of access that, say, Rotten Tomatoes does for film buffs.
Search your zip code in our new database to learn if there are harmful chemicals in your tap water: https://t.co/hFcPiW781F #WaterSafety — EWG (@ewg) July 26, 2017 This video issued by the EWG offers a look at the simple and effective alternative to the Environmental Protection Agency’s archaic attempt at sharing drinking water data.
The most recent update of EWG’s database suggests that 4 million Americans live in areas with access to drinking water containing contaminants in excess of the legal limit.
As eyes continue to turn away from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, EWG hopes to ensure that citizens are as sophisticated about their drinking water as they are about all the other products they consume in their lives.
They’re not purely based on health limits, so that’s part of the education process.” That education process will serve to ensure that new stories such as the one below create the attention they deserve.
Cancer-Causing Pesticide ‘Garbage’ Taints Tap Water for Millions in California | @ewg | https://t.co/LL9CobvDQL — Mary B.

Army pledges Merrimac Badger Ammunition cleanup help, will not fund drinking water system.
Residents living within reach of toxic groundwater pollution near the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant questioned Army officials Wednesday about their sudden abandonment of a proposed $20 million public drinking water system.
Army representatives said they’re committed to ensuring people living near the property have access to clean drinking water, but said an Army representative acted prematurely when committing to fund a public drinking water system for the residents.
“The Army prides itself on what we say we’re going to do — we’re going to do and follow through.
But in this particular incident we are not going to be able to do that right now.” Members of the audience said the Army waited too long to communicate its decision, is not honoring its commitment and has not come up with any new solution to the contamination issues plaguing them.
“One of the things that is often said is that the DOD (Department of Defense) does not recognize the groundwater needs to be restored to its beneficial levels,” Tesner said.
“That is not the case.
At the very highest levels of the Pentagon, the Department of Defense level … that assertion has been made and has been made very recently that even if we can’t do the drinking water system we will have a remedy and we will stick to it.” One resident who lives nearby said his well hasn’t been tested for contaminants in six years.
Kelly said with a decrease or stabilization in the chemicals in the majority of wells "it is time where we move from an active remedy to a more passive one, but that doesn’t mean we go away."
The Army said it now has a remedial investigative contract, and in early 2018 will draft a remedial investigation for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

A two-day Dhaka Water Summit 2017 will begin tomorrow (Saturday) in the capital to discuss ways and means for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-6.
The theme of the summit is ‘Water Sustains Development’ where water experts and scientists will exchange knowledge and share their experiences to deal with water-related problems in South Asia, South East Asia and Delta Coalition region.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the summit at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
There will be four technical sessions during the summit.
The sessions will focus integrated water resources management, protection and restoration of water-related ecosystem, universal and equitable access to drinking water for all, valuing water, adequate and equitable sanitation for all, promoting hygienic practices, improvement of water quality by pollution prevention and combatting water scarcity by improved water efficiency.
The experts in the summit will put forward their recommendations on eight specific subjects.
They will also identify problems related to water supply, sanitation and water management.
At the end of the summit, there will be ‘Dhaka Water Declaration’.
"It is not possible to attain SDG-6 alone.
We hope the Dhaka Water Summit 2017 will help attain targets of water-related issues which are mentioned in SDG-6," the minister said.Regarding waterlogging in the capital on Wednesday, the minister said, "We were not prepared to deal with such abnormal rainfalls on that day."

Salem water-quality standards need to keep up with new findings.
Mid-Valley residents learned this week that Salem’s drinking water meets all federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
A nonprofit group out of Washington, D.C., the Environmental Working Group, released a national drinking-water database Wednesday that allows users to plug in their ZIP Code and find out what contaminants are in their drinking water.
In Salem, three chemicals met the Environmental Protection Agency’s legal limit, but they far exceeded those considered safe by the nonprofit.
But since 1996, Lunder said, more chemicals have been identified and new technology to detect even more chemicals has been developed.
"We’re frustrated by the lack of action on the EPA’s part to update its list," Lunder said.
It’s relatively inexpensive to monitor chemicals; the problem is the cost of removing them once they’re identified.
Not a single new contaminant has been added to the EPA list in more than two decades Public health is not being protected.
Our water utility should be using the most-recent science to evaluate the public health risk.
To find out what contaminants are in your drinking water

Drinking Fountains Have All but Disappeared From Israel’s Streets.
Drinking fountains have all but disappeared from the Israeli street.
When asked, the Health Ministry said that while there are standards for installing and maintaining public fountains, there is no requirement to actually have them.
Israel is not alone when it comes to the gradual disappearance of public drinking fountains.
Who drinks from that?
They invented a new business of water consumption while piggybacking on the health trend,” Halevy Bar says.
“Through clever branding, companies have created demand for a natural resource that already exists in the faucet.” Moreover, they sell this free product in plastic bottles that are causing global contamination.
Yuval Arica, owner of faucet manufacturer Shaham-Arica, says government bodies buy between 1,000 and 2,000 water fountains a year, some for parks, most for schools, where fountains are a rule (one per every 40 pupils).
In other words, for the price of one fancy decorative fountain, a city could install 150 regular drinking fountains.
Local governments really should provide their citizens with free drinking water outside, Zaum says: At the very least, water is healthier than sugary drinks.

New Delhi [India], July 28 (ANI-NewsVoir): PATH?s Defeat Diarrheal Disease Initiative (DefeatDD) convened thought leaders in New Delhi on July 26, at an event titled, ?Defeating diarrhea: integration is the solution,?
said attendee Dr. N. K. Ganguly, advisor for the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute and former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The series showcases the momentum and progress in India through the work of organizations such as Save the Children (the Stop Diarrhea Initiative), Population Services International, the Aga Khan Development Network, WaterAid, Clinton Health Access Initiative and Sesame Workshop, among others, to inspire advocates nationally and globally.
During a panel discussion: ?Integrated approaches to tackle diarrhea,?
moderated by PATH India Country Program leader Neeraj Jain, participants highlighted the need to work together and prioritize diarrheal disease in India.
He underscored the need to strengthen the health system and ensure interventions can be scaled.
Collaborating partners and others from UNICEF, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council World, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the International Rescue Committee, members of the India Sanitation Coalition, Global Health Strategies, John Snow, Inc., the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wash Institute attended the meeting.
When it doesn’t kill, repeated bouts of diarrheal illness can lead to irreversible physical and cognitive stunting, a burden that contributes to keeping families locked in a cycle of poverty and limiting children’s ability to reach their full potential.
PATH is the leader in global health innovation.
By mobilizing partners around the world, we take innovation to scale, working alongside countries primarily in Africa and Asia to tackle their greatest health needs.

Army pledges Merrimac Badger Ammunition cleanup help, will not fund drinking water system.
Residents living within reach of toxic groundwater pollution near the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant questioned Army officials Wednesday about their sudden abandonment of a proposed $20 million public drinking water system.
Army representatives said they’re committed to ensuring people living near the property have access to clean drinking water, but said an Army representative acted prematurely when committing to fund a public drinking water system for the residents.
“The Army prides itself on what we say we’re going to do — we’re going to do and follow through.
But in this particular incident we are not going to be able to do that right now.” Members of the audience said the Army waited too long to communicate its decision, is not honoring its commitment and has not come up with any new solution to the contamination issues plaguing them.
“One of the things that is often said is that the DOD (Department of Defense) does not recognize the groundwater needs to be restored to its beneficial levels,” Tesner said.
“That is not the case.
At the very highest levels of the Pentagon, the Department of Defense level … that assertion has been made and has been made very recently that even if we can’t do the drinking water system we will have a remedy and we will stick to it.” One resident who lives nearby said his well hasn’t been tested for contaminants in six years.
Kelly said with a decrease or stabilization in the chemicals in the majority of wells "it is time where we move from an active remedy to a more passive one, but that doesn’t mean we go away."
The Army said it now has a remedial investigative contract, and in early 2018 will draft a remedial investigation for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Trump takes steps to ensure more Americans have access to unsafe drinking water.
The Trump administration took steps Tuesday to eliminate an Obama-era environmental initiative that sought to protect the drinking water used by one-third of America, openly admitting it was doing so in order to benefit business.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Tuesday that they’re beginning to dismantle the Clean Water Rule, aimed at safeguarding the drinking water delivered to about one in three Americans.
The rule, which sought to clarify part of the Clean Water Act, created protections for an additional two million miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands.
The rule was extremely unpopular with a wide range of groups, including farmers, real estate developers, and manufacturers, who worried the bill’s expansive jurisdiction over “waters of the U.S.” would result in prosecution for diverting a stream or building on wetlands.
The Trump administration has not announced any plans to protect those waterways in lieu of the rule.
“We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses,” EPA head Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic who repeatedly sued the EPA as Oklahoma’s attorney general, said in a statement.
“This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine ‘waters of the U.S.’ and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public.” Pruitt, who supported Trump’s deep cuts to the EPA budget, recently made headlines when, after meeting with the CEO of Dow Chemical, he declined to ban a pesticide scientists say is harmful to both children and farmers.
In doing so, he cited the use of “sound science in decision-making rather than predetermined results” — those so-called predetermined results being findings made by the EPA’s own scientists.

This Website Will Tell You If Your Tap Water Could Be Unsafe.
With the internet never more than an arm’s length away, people have the ability to research countless products.
Cars, films, and even other people are aggregated and dissected by apps and sites for anyone to examine.
But, strangely, when it comes to the quality of a person’s drinking water, the information is often opaque — if it exists at all.
Fortunately, a new database released yesterday by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group affords those with concerns over their home’s water the ease of access that, say, Rotten Tomatoes does for film buffs.
Search your zip code in our new database to learn if there are harmful chemicals in your tap water: https://t.co/hFcPiW781F #WaterSafety — EWG (@ewg) July 26, 2017 This video issued by the EWG offers a look at the simple and effective alternative to the Environmental Protection Agency’s archaic attempt at sharing drinking water data.
The most recent update of EWG’s database suggests that 4 million Americans live in areas with access to drinking water containing contaminants in excess of the legal limit.
As eyes continue to turn away from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, EWG hopes to ensure that citizens are as sophisticated about their drinking water as they are about all the other products they consume in their lives.
They’re not purely based on health limits, so that’s part of the education process.” That education process will serve to ensure that new stories such as the one below create the attention they deserve.
Cancer-Causing Pesticide ‘Garbage’ Taints Tap Water for Millions in California | @ewg | https://t.co/LL9CobvDQL — Mary B.

US government promotes innovative water management in Tajikistan.
DUSHANBE (TCA) — US Ambassador to Tajikistan Elisabeth Millard on July 26 participated in a forum on “Innovative Water Management for Sustainable Development”, organized by the USAID Local Governance Project and chaired by the Tajik First Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources Mr. Sulton Rahimzoda, and focused on improving the quality and management of drinking water supply services in Tajikistan, the US Embassy in Dushanbe said.
More than 60 participants, including key government counterparts, representatives of the water sector, chairmen of districts and jamoats, and development partners discussed the current state of the drinking water supply in rural Tajikistan and identified ways to increase access through investment and improved management.
At the end of the forum participants drafted a resolution with recommendations on ways to improve rural water management, which will be forwarded to the President’s Executive Office for approval.
The event was a part of the USAID Local Governance Project, which works in 10 districts and 20 municipalities to improve the quality of local governance and service delivery, particularly in clean drinking water, and strengthens citizen participation in local government decision-making.
To date, the project has installed 17 drinking water systems across Tajikistan, delivering clean drinking water to close to 42,000 people.
Over the past 25 years, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe has provided more than $1.8 billion in programs that support Tajikistan’s security, democratic institutions, social sector, and economic growth.
Throughout 2017, Tajikistan and the United States celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations.