Warriors for Clean Water claims Decatur’s water is contaminated with heavy metals and can cause kidney failure.
Decatur Utilities calls the claims unwarranted and unsubstantiated.
Here’s what Decatur Utilities wrote in a letter it sent to WAAY 31: “Decatur Utilities assures customers that its drinking water is safe Decatur Utilities monitored a press conference held today by Ron Mixon of Warriors for Clean Water and Dr. John Rose, DO (Doctor of Osteopathy).
The Decatur Utilities service area was lumped into a region referenced in a study alleging a link between levels of heavy metals in local drinking water and instances of kidney failure.
Decatur Utilities provides its customers with safe, clean drinking water that exceeds state and federal quality standards.
Contrary to the claim made by Mr. Mixon, DU’s water treatment process is multi-staged and includes screening, chemical addition, settling, filtration, and disinfection.
Decatur Utilities performs more than one million tests in-house and at third-party independent laboratories each year to monitor the level of contaminants in the drinking water provided.
Levels of other contaminants are well below the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).
In August, Decatur Utilities received notification from the EPA that its Water Treatment Plant (WTP) had surpassed state and federal regulatory treatment standards for water quality for the fourth straight year (2013-2016).
“ Article Comments

MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is moving to limit how much pollution can be allowed to wash into Barnegat Bay each day, a step environmentalists say is the single biggest way to improve water quality in one of the nation’s most threatened bays.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday unveiled the second part of his plan to save the bay, an effort begun shortly after he took office more than seven years ago. The $20 million effort includes setting a daily limit on the amount of nitrogen and other pollutants that can be allowed to wash into the bay.
It’s a step environmentalists have long sought, and one that Christie resisted for most of his two terms in office, saying more study was needed.
"From the very beginning of my administration I have made it a priority to do what no other administration ever attempted — to implement a cohesive strategy to protect an ecological treasure that is so important for area residents, visitors and the entire state," said Christie.
Yet he had long resisted setting numerical limits for pollution entering the bay, vetoing a bill in 2011 that would have set them.
Christie did not set a timetable for his Department of Environmental Protection to adopting the standards.
The DEP recently completed a study of Barnegat Bay, a shallow, narrow 42-mile long waterway surrounded by some of the state’s most heavily developed coastal areas.
Christie unveiled a plan to help Barnegat Bay in 2010 that included adopting the nation’s toughest standards on the amount of nitrogen that can be sold in fertilizer within the state.

Its certainly not easy being an environmental activist.
Most likely your work goes ignored by the government and corporate interests, but on the occasions when they pay attention to what you’re doing, you’re liable to end up dead.
I wish I could say that that was an overreaction, but the Guardian reports that more than 200 environmental leaders were murdered in 2016, setting a devastating new record.
That’s twice the amount of eco-activists killed worldwide five years ago.
Unfortunately, these killings have become something of a terrible trend.
Last year, I wrote that the record was broken in 2015 with 185 known activist deaths.
Bobby Banerjee, a researcher who studies pushback to global development, says violence has heightened due to the spread of capitalism.
Corporations have moved on to poorer countries where precious land and resources are still up for grabs.
Companies and governments looking to profit off the exploitation of land will hire hit men to murder on their behalf, targeting the leaders of resistance movements.
Greed shouldn’t take precedence over human life, but realistically we’re going to need a lot more environmental activists to put their lives on the line in order to ever topple a system this corrupt.

Trump Picks DAPL Lobbyist to Oversee EPA Water Safety in Same Week He Rolls Back Water Safeguards.
As President Donald Trump announced this week that the Environmental Protection Agency will roll back an Obama policy that environmentalists say safeguards drinking water for one in three Americans, The Intercept reports that the person Trump has tapped to be the EPA’s water safety official is a former lobbyist with deep ties to a fossil fuel advocacy group that promotes the Dakota Access pipeline and offshore drilling.
His latest piece, "EPA’s New Water Safety Official is a Lobbyist with Deep Ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline."
Lee, welcome back to Democracy Now!
LEE FANG: Amy and Nermeen, thank you so much for having me.
The latest political appointee in the Trump administration, as you mentioned, is Dennis Lee Forsgren.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I want to read a statement by Consumer Energy Alliance President David Holt in October 2016 during the protests by waterkeepers against the Dakota Access pipeline.
Well, you know, the CEA group, you know, they pretend to be an independent organization, but we’ve gone through tax filings and found that large oil refineries, companies like Koch Industries, that you previously referenced on your show, and Phillips 66, these big kind of industrial polluters, are providing a significant portion of the financing for CEA.
And the individual that provided that quote you just read, you know, he says that he is a voice of the consumer, but actually he’s just another person at the same lobbying firm where Dennis Lee Forsgren is from.
AMY GOODMAN: Does Forsgren have to go through congressional approval, Lee Fang?

In a major property rights decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a decisive victory to state and local governments and environmental groups. By a 5-to-3 vote, the justices made it much harder for property owners to get compensation from the government when zoning regulations restrict the use of just part of landowners’ property. The Constitution bars the taking of private property by the government without just compensation. The Supreme Court, for a century, has said that when the government goes “too far” in regulating property — so as to make that property economically unusable — the government also has to compensate the owner. The question is: How far is “too far”? In recent decades, property rights advocates have aggressively tried to limit regulation by demanding compensation. At the same time, cities and states have sought to manage urban sprawl, water pollution, flooding and other problems, by enacting regulations to limit what some property owners can do with their land. Friday’s decision came in a case that involved two plots of land, bought by William and Margaret Murr in the 1960s, overlooking the picturesque grandeur of the St. Croix River in Wisconsin. In 1972, the river was designated for federal protection, and the state enacted regulations to preserve its scenic and recreational qualities. The regulations barred building on any lots smaller than one acre of land. The Murrs’ two lots, including a cabin on one, combined to cover just under an acre of land suitable for development. Under the regulations, the lots were merged into one. After the Murrs transferred the property to their four children in the 1990s, the younger Murrs were denied permission to build on what had previously been the second lot….

Advocacy Groups Urge Public to Help Save Environmental Funding in Rhode Island Budget.
Some 20 environmental groups are imploring their supporters to contact their members of the House ahead of its marathon budget vote scheduled for June 22 and ask them to restore $12.5 million to Rhode Island’s energy-efficiency program.
Gas and electric customers pay for energy-efficiency programs when they pay their utility bills.
In a letter, the coalition asks legislators not to defund a flourishing program.
“A cut of $12.5 million from our state’s ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs will hinder growth and significantly impact savings for residents and businesses.
Energy efficiency is Rhode Island’s ‘first fuel’ and its lowest-cost energy resource.” Save The Bay wants the House to add two jobs proposed in Gov.
The environmental group also wants the House to restore $5 million “scooped” from the Narragansett Bay Commission to the General Fund.
Farm events.
Land trusts worry that the legislation allows this new class of “secondary agricultural operations” to trump local planning and zoning boards.
The Land Trust Council and the Rhode Island Farm Bureau say business interests crafted the bill without input from farmers.

Eighth Major Report Finds Water Contamination From Fracking ‘Has Not Been Observed’.
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) released its study Monday, concluding that contamination of drinking water from fracking “has not been observed in Texas.” The report noted that fracking is “highly unlikely” to contaminate drinking water aquifers, which are often far away from where the oil or natural gas is extracted.
“This study is yet another indication that the campaign to shut down fracking is based on politics, not science,” Steve Everley, spokesman, Texans for Natural Gas, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“If fracking were a credible risk to groundwater, we would know about it in Texas, which produces more oil and natural gas than any other state.
The fact that such an incident hasn’t been observed here is further confirmation that fracking is safe and well-regulated,” Everley said.
The report also noted that fracking has helped Texas’s economy and reduced energy-related emissions.
TAMEST’s study also notes that fracking has had other beneficial impacts on Texas, including making the state’s cleaner and reviving local economies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a five-year study in 2016 that found fracking was not causing widespread groundwater contamination.
“We haven’t seen anything to show that wells have been contaminated by fracking.” A Duke University study published earlier this month and funded by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) came to the same conclusions as TAMEST.
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Environmentalists and social scientists oppose Pharma City near Hyderabad, express fear of excess pollution A Raju, Hyderabad Monday, June 05, 2017, 08:00 Hrs [IST] Environmentalists and social scientists in Hyderabad have opposed the establishment of Pharma City, as they fear setting up of new pharmaceutical units in the Pharma City would pollute the entire environment not only within the premises of the city but also contaminate land, water and air within the proximity of the Pharma City.
“We feel, creating additional pharmaceutical clusters and establishment of Pharma City, to a large extent, would only further add to the already existing pollution creating health hazards to the people.
Already the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation has been entrusted to develop the basic infrastructure facilities like construction of roads, drains and setting up of power lines and providing water facilities.
Already construction activities over 2000 acres in the Pharma City is undergoing and few companies have already started their units.
However, even though the government had promised that the Pharma City will be free of pollution and adequate steps will be taken to see that utmost care will be taken to protect environment from the emanating industrial pollutants, the environmentalists have their own doubts and opposing the setting up of such huge pharma cluster like Pharma City.
“Already there is huge pharma pollution caused by the pharma industries within the city which is affecting the health of people; and there is a huge fish killing in the lakes.
Now with government proposing to establish more new pharma clusters on the outskirts of Outer Ring Road, this means more environmental pollution in the coming days.
With unabated letting of pollutants in nalas, the Hussain sagar and the Musi river have been highly polluted and the pharma companies are least bothered and have done nothing to save the lakes and water bodies,” said C. Manjulatha, Principal of Government City College, Hyderabad.
Dr K Babu Rao, a retired senior scientist, observed that there is no need to come up with new Pharma city projects as they would pollute other areas.
He said, “Though the pharma companies and the government are claiming to have installed Zero Liquid Discharge equipments in the manufacturing units, it is not possible to have a zero liquid discharge.

A government agency has contradicted claims made by environmentalists for the seventh time and found hydraulic fracturing doesn’t pose a grave threat to drinking water. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published a study Wednesday that examined 116 water wells across the energy-rich regions of Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. The study found nine examples of water contamination in the wells, but every case was either naturally occurring or not linked to fracking. “Another day, another study confirming fracking is not a major risk to groundwater,” Steve Everley, a spokesman for Texans for Natural Gas, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This report comes less than a year after the U.S. EPA’s landmark study that also found no evidence of widespread water pollution from fracking,” Everley said. “It’s time to put to rest the…

The first and most serious is the violation of the non-aggression principle. Polluters emit poisonous gas into the air. Chemical runoff from fertilizers, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrogen oxides all negatively impact society. Producers of goods that cause air, soil, and water pollution profit while other individuals suffer the consequences; this is hardly a non-aggression ideal. To further establish fossil fuels’ anti-liberty credentials, they do this with government assistance. The Overseas Development Institute, and Oil Change International, commissioned a study which concluded that global subsidies for fossil fuel producers stood at $775 billion, while green energy subsidies received a humbler $101 billion. Fossil fuels receive an unfair competitive advantage. Libertarians desperately need to stop pretending this is a free market – it is big government. Environmentalism ought not to be a platform for the left. There is no stronger empirical argument for liberty than the horrifying reality of governments actually stealing our money and giving it to people…