National
Drinking Water Clearinghouse
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6064
Morgantown, WV
26506-6064
Web
Resources
Security
Assessment
Engine Now Available
www.mrwa.com
By June 30, 2004, all water systems serving populations between 3,300 and
49,999 will have to conduct a vulnerability assessment and submit the results
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The new law also requires
these systems to have an emergency plan in place that incorporates their vulnerability
assessment and to certify this with EPA.
To help small systems meet these mandates, the National Rural Water Association
has developed a Web-based “engine” —available on the Minnesota
Rural Water Association’s (MRWA) Web site—that will provide you
with a hard copy of (1) a vulnerability plan, (2) an emergency response plan,
and (3) a cover letter to EPA for submitting the material. The “engine”
has 50 questions that take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
“Physical facilities pose a high degree of exposure to any security threat,”
says Ruth Hubbard, MRWA administrator. “This self-assessment is designed
for use by water system personnel and should be conducted on all components
of your system: wellhead or surface water intake, treatment plant, storage
tanks, pumps, distribution system, and other important components of your
system. We encourage all water systems, regardless of population, to conduct
a vulnerability assessment.”
The vulnerability assessment engine was designed in collaboration with EPA
and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators. The engine provides
the option of completing hard copy documents or saving the information on
your computer. All information is confidential and exempt from freedom of
information laws.
Public Citizen Has Water Info
www.citizen.org/cmep/water/
Founded in 1971 by consumer advocate and erstwhile presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Public Citizen’s mission is to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch of the federal government, and in the courts. The organization has six divisions, including one devoted to the environment called “critical mass energy and environment program.”
Public Citizen has been an unabashed opponent of the privatization of water facilities in the U.S. and around the world. According to their Web site, “… there is a growing social movement to protect water as a common resource. Because the largest multinational corporations have come to realize that water scarcity and pollution are going to define the next century, a tremendous surge of activity is taking place around the world to commodify and privatize water. Public Citizen is campaigning to protect universal access to clean and affordable drinking water by keeping it in public hands.”
The Public Citizen Web site has extensive information related to water privatization, including reports on multinational water corporations, lists of citizen groups working against water privatization, and examples of state and federal legislation about municipal water. The site also offers “economical and ethical alternatives to privatization.”
For more information, visit www.citizen.org/cmep/water/ or write to Public Citizen, 1600 20th Street NW, Washington DC, 20009.
USDA State Fact Sheets
www.ers.usda.gov/statefacts/
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) publishes fact sheets for each state and the U.S. as a whole. Information in the fact sheets includes: per-capita income, poverty rate, unemployment rate, percent employment change, and top agriculture commodities.
Although the fact sheets primarily focus on agricultural issues, they may be of interest to a wider audience. “You may find the state fact sheets useful for creating presentations about the rural areas of your state,” says Eileen Stommes, ERS deputy administrator. “You can easily link to data sources to develop charts and graphs depicting rural conditions.” The entire state fact-sheet database may be downloaded into MS Access 97.
Each topic area has links for more data and to a contact person within ERS who can provide more detailed information.
Water Pollution Reports Online
www.uspirg.org
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) released an extensive report documenting water pollution. Using previously non-public information obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the report In Gross Violation: How Polluters Are Flooding America’s Waterways with Toxic Chemicals analyzes all major facilities exceeding their CWA permits.
Among the findings in the report:
• Nationally, 5,116 major facilities (81 percent) exceeded their Clean Water Act effluent permit limits at least once between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2001, including 1,768 facilities (28 percent) for discharging chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects.
• Nationally, 262 major facilities exceeded their effluent permit limits for at least 10 reporting periods between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2001, for chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects
• Major facilities, on average, exceeded their effluent permit limits for high hazard chemicals by 849 percent, or more than eight times the legal limit, between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2001.
“On the Clean Water Act’s 30th anniversary, we find that facilities across the country continue to violate the letter and spirit of the law, at times egregiously, for high hazard chemicals,” USPIRG states in the executive summary.
The entire report is available on the USPIRG Web site at uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=5663&id3=USPIRG&#e4. Information for each state is available for download, as well as data on toxic pollutants and their health effects; a list of facilities with the most reporting periods in violation (1999-2001); and a list of facilities exceeding their permits by at least 1,000 percent. Additional water reports may be found on this Web site.
Founded in 1983, USPIRG seeks to uncover dangers to public health and wellbeing and fight to end them, using investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy, and litigation.
Source Water Protection Case Studies
www.epa.gov
A variety of local government source water protection case studies are now available on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site.
“These case studies represent a variety of approaches to protecting sources of drinking water supplies for a diverse group of communities that differ in size, geography, economic and social characteristics, and type of source water used (surface water, ground water, or both),” says Steve Ainsworth of EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water. “What they have in common is a fairly comprehensive approach to source water protection that reflects a strong commitment to safeguarding the public’s health. We offer them here so that other communities interested in moving to source water protection can use them as references in designing their own programs.”
To view the case studies, visit EPA’s Web site at www.epa.gov/safewater/protect/casesty/casestudy.html
National Environmental Health Association
www.neha.org
The National Environmental Health Association’s (NEHA) mission is to improve the environment in cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the world to create a more healthful environment and quality of life for us all. NEHA’s membership includes those in both pubic and private sectors, academics, and the uniformed services.
Because of its diverse membership, NEHA offers a forum for discussing issues from a variety of viewpoints. The site has information about continuing education and credential renewals, and also offers a series of Web-based courses. Articles from the Journal of Environmental Health may be purchased online. The site includes links to environmental health- and protection-related organizations and agencies.