safe water can be our reality

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Investigation finds more toxic drinking water in Valley … KNXV-TV – reported by Joe Ducey…8-19-08 - Kristi Carpenter’s neighborhood is a picturesque area of East Mesa filled with cactus and bordered by mountains. It’s also hiding a secret about its water supply. Carpenter lives near 90th Place, just north of McDowell Road. Her area tested high for total trihalomethanes, or TTHMs. TTHMs form when organic material mixes with chlorine, which cities use to disinfect water supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency sets a limit for TTHMs of 80 parts per billion because of the potential dangers. Valley doctor Marianne Marchese said TTHMs are linked to various cancers, specifically bladder cancer. “It can lead to birth defects. There are various neurological and liver and kidney problems.” Marchese added that TTHMs can be ingested, absorbed or inhaled, and what isn't excreted is stored in your body fat. “TTHMs can stay in a person’s tissues for 20 to 30 years,” Marchese said, “And then at times it can slowly be released and get back into the blood stream.” At the east Mesa location, city records showed three years of consistently high averages of 116, 98 and 91 -- all more than the 80 EPA limit. Dr. Alan Martindale is the head of water quality in Mesa. “We are looking at a very long time period before there is a danger associated with this,” he said.

IT will be fixed when this type of information is NOT withheld from you and me and is immediately disclosed.

This information should NEVER be hidden from an unsuspecting public to whom any water purveyor is supplying water. This form of non-disclosure should never be tolerated in any form by any government or corporation. We allow it because that’s what we have been educated to believe is acceptable forms of disclosure from government, public officials, politicians, corporations and business. Well it’s not and we have every right to demand and expect absolutely full and open disclosure and not be willing to accept anything less.

This is but the tip of an iceberg of nondisclosure which government, public officials, politicians, corporations and business has and continues to perpetuate on us each and every day. In Arizona we are fed a steady daily diet that there is no current or long term water problem and that our water is SAFE. Moreover, that urban sprawl is the best solution to support the economic policy of unrestricted growth in our state.

Full open honest disclosure will not occur until we individually and collectively stand shoulder to shoulder and demand it and be unwilling to accept anything less.