Tap Water Solutions

Must Protect Our Drinking Water

EWG's analysis of tap water tests from 42 states shows that 195,257,000 people in communities have been served drinking water contaminated with one or more pollutants at levels above health-based limits. In 4,950 communities four or more contaminants exceeded health-based limits between 1998 and 2003.
 
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA is allowed to set maximum legal limits for contaminants as if people are exposed to just one contaminant at a time.

That's not the reality of human exposure — studies show instead that people carry hundreds of chemicals in their bodies at any given time. For example, recent investigation by EWG identified an average of 200 industrial chemicals, pesticides and pollutants in ten babies at the moment of birth.

And a growing number of studies show that the risks add up when we're exposed to multiple chemicals that act in tandem to harm an organ or system in the body — and the total risk can be greater than the sum of the parts: some chemicals amplify the risks of companion chemicals.
         
EWG's analysis of tap water tests from 42 states shows that 113 million people in 3,382 communities have been served drinking water found to be contaminated with at least 10 different pollutants on the same day. Today, there are many Tap Water Solutions that can help protect our drinking water.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA is not required to set maximum legal limits for contaminants in tap water at levels that protect the health of children.

EWG's Analysis And Tap Water Solutions

EWG's analysis of tap water tests from 42 states shows that in 1,161 communities, concentrations of one or more pollutants exceeded EPA's recommended (not mandatory) limit for one-day exposures to protect a 22-pound child.

Cost-Benefit Balancing Of Tap Water Solutions

The cost-benefit balancing act EPA must orchestrate when setting tap water quality standards stands, and the absence of specific requirements to protect children or consider composite risks, from multiple chemicals with similar target target organs and modes of action, stand in stark contrast to the Agency's mandate when it comes to pesticides in food.

There, the Agency is specifically required to set standards that protect children, using an additional 10-fold safety factor and considering all routes of exposure and additive risks from exposures to multiple chemicals. Standards are set to protect health.

Tap Water Solutions Recommendations

The cost of treating water is high and will only increase if current policies continue. According to the EPA, the nation's water utilities will need an estimated $53 billion in investments for water treatment over the next 20 years, to meet safety standards for water polluted with the chemicals that EPA has failed to control upstream (EPA 2005e).

This investment is not designed to vastly improve tap water quality — it's set to ensure there is a variety of tap water solutions available to suppliers so they can continue to meet current standards. And yet at current levels of contamination, the public doesn't trust the water:

Americans will spend an estimated $10 billion in 2005 on bottled water (IBWA 2005), in part because of the belief that water from the tap isn't safe enough to drink. So we pay for our water twice, once at the tap and once in a bottle.

We have, in essence, created a system with an economic divide, where those who can, buy bottled, and those who can't, drink it from the tap. Tap water solutions should be safe for everyone to drink.

Tap Water Solutions Recommendation

In light of the findings of this study, which show that tap water in 42 states is contaminated with more than 140 unregulated chemicals that lack legal limits in drinking water supplies, the following is recommended:

* EPA should maintain a national database of tap water quality testing. Without it, the Agency is hindered in its ability to make wise choices in the limiting testing it does require and the unregulated contaminants it does consider for regulation. The database compiled by EWG represents the most comprehensive database of tap water testing in existence.

* EPA should study the health impacts of all water disinfection by-products, and require monitoring and toxicity testing sufficient to support a human health risk assessment for these compounds.

* EPA should set health-protective standards for chemicals that are currently unregulated, but present in tap water. EPA should greatly expand requirements for testing unregulated contaminants. EPA and Congress should provide support for utilities to get that testing done.

* Congress and EPA should support utilities and states in efforts to protect source waters. Source water protection programs should be significantly expanded, including efforts to prevent or reduce pollution to source waters, and efforts to conserve land in buffer zones around tap water supplies.

Financial Support For Tap Water Solutions

Financial support for these efforts is crucial.

We strongly urge that federal laws and policies be reformed to ensure that vulnerable populations, including pregnant women and children, are protected from chemicals.

We urge that to the maximum extent possible, exposures to industrial chemicals in tap water during sensitive times in life, including in utero, be eliminated. The sooner society takes action, the sooner we can provide tap water that is safe for everyone.

Buy Safe RV Drinking Water Products Online

BUY Safe RV Drinking Water Products Online by clicking a product link or going directly to the RV Water Solutions Products Section.

You can be assured that you will be choosing from one of the best selections of RV Water Products online at the best price.