By Michelle Kaplan Ognjanovic.

The New York Times recently delivered what was at once a walloping and disturbing message to Americans about the condition of our drinking water. Find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html?emc=eta1. The article details how drinking water sources nationwide may be unhealthy though legal (bet you didn’t know drinking water could be legally unhealthy). To be fair, it is more unhealthy in some places than others (and I imagine your initial reaction to be should I be worried?).

The reasons for the downward spiral are myriad, including lax discharge rulings, ineffective or insufficient water treatment systems, inadequate or unenforced laws, privatization of water and wells; you get the point—they’re all over the board. But the overarching reason is that we’ve consistently and systematically let ourselves be poisoned through a collective apathy over our health and through our lack of personal responsibility for sustaining our natural resources. The Times article affirms that even where the EPA is trying to clean up various locales’ drinking water, residents often refuse to pay for improvements and are reluctant to be inconvenienced. One local water authority in Silver Lake, California, for example, in a proactive move covered the surface of its reservoirs with black plastic balls so as to insulate the water from the sun which would otherwise have provided a breeding ground for carcinogens. But instead of appreciation for the effort, the authority’s action was met with a rallying cry of Not In My Backyard (NIMBY). Residents were not decrying the presence of the carcinogens but, rather, referring to the unsightly and disturbing plastic balls in their line of sight. Yet the alternative to the plastic balls would have cost millions of dollars and would have required levying an unfeasible tax on the community.

What I did not want to venture though, for fear of delivering bad tidings around the holidays, is that drinking water in the state of Pennsylvania will likely be rendered even less safe going forward. In what is highly toxic water produced by natural gas drillers (specifically a process known as hydraulic fracturing) in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, the drilling companies are unearthing chemicals like heavy metals (including arsenic and lead), and volatile, carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene and radium—and dumping them wholesale in our rivers. What’s more, since this wastewater is generally three to six times saltier than seawater, it has already changed fresh water streams into salt water in Pennsylvania! Finally, what has seemed a sleeping DEP that allowed drillers to dump their wastewater with little or no treatment, is finally showing signs of life and proposing new standards including requiring treatment prior to discharge.

Given DEP’s record, they need to hear from Pennsylvania communities to make sure they do the right thing. Assuming you are inclined to think about details like your drinking water (which also happens to be the water in which you cook), we are asking our friends and neighbors to provide their feedback on ‘chapter 95 proposed revisions to Marcellus wastewater regulation’ and to advocate DEP for stronger standards. Please let the DEP know they should add discharge standards for the contaminants frequently found in Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater and ensure all aspects of the generation of the wastewater are regulated. There are indeed no requirements currently to track wastewater from drilling sites to treatment plants, and no oversight over the reuse of that wastewater. These matters must urgently be addressed by the DEP.

Gas companies and their lobbyists will also be out in full force attempting to convince DEP that continuing dumping wastewater into rivers unabated is merely business as usual. Please speak out to protect our communities’ rivers and drinking supplies!

To get involved, please contact Clean Water Action or write to Environmental Quality Board as follows. To learn more about clean energy, you can attend a PennFuture Clean Energy Breakfast which is also detailed below.

Cathy Frankenburg

Clean Water Action

Community Organizer

901 North New Street

Bethlehem, PA 18018

610-691-7395

610-691-7397 (FAX)

cfrankenberg@cleanwater.org

Comments you can send electronically will be available through the Clean Water Action website at www.cleanwateraction.org/pa later in December.

Environmental Quality Board

P.O. Box 8477

Harrisburg, PA 17105-8477

e-mail: RegComments@state.pa.us

Make sure to state that your comments are concerning DEP’s Chapter 95 proposed revisions, and include your name and address.

Written comments must be received by Feb. 12, 2010.

PennFuture

Clean Energy Breakfast (see their website for other dates and cities)

January 14, 2010

8:00-10:00 a.m.

Allentown Brew Works

812 W. Hamilton Street

Allentown, PA 18101http://my.pennfuture.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=104321&autologin=true&AddInterest=1291