Clean water laws ignored

What's the point in even passing laws when Big Business just uses its clout to ignore these laws?

An expose by the New York Times reveals that laws designed to guarantee clean water for America's families are routinely ignored and remain unenforced.

In one community outside Charleston, West Virginia, it's gotten so bad that residents have water transported in by truck. The local water supply is so tainted by manganese, arsenic, and other chemicals that residents have suffered rashes and burns just by bathing in it. The water has also eaten away residents' teeth and has ruined devices like toilets. Thirty percent of residents have had to have their gallbladders removed.

Coal companies admitted illegally polluting the water supply, but state regulators refused to punish the companies.

The pattern of corporations polluting water and not being held accountable by state or federal authorities is repeated all over America. In almost any American community, you'd be shocked at how many violations there are - which almost always go unpunished.

Drinking water in major cities contains dangerous levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Almost 20,000,000 Americans get sick each year from parasites, bacteria, or viruses in their water. Many Americans drink water containing pesticides responsible for birth defects.

The number of Clean Water Act violations has soared in the past 10 years. (Ahem.) Other regulations have been gutted by corporate lobbying.

We're drinking poison. And it's all because a self-righteous few with a lot of clout think they have a "right" to use their property or business for unreasonable uses that harm everyone else.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html)