Poor Supreme Court decision
To the Editor:
The Supreme Court vs. Texas Abortion Law based its ruling on the assumption that the cost to upgrade the clinics would cause many clinics to close. How erroneous!
Cleaning up the water supply
To the Editor:
The health and safety of our communities should be everyone’s top priority. Yet, until recently, health and environmental agencies apparently have not made the presence of lead in our water a priority. Recent testing has turned up lead at alarming levels in many school districts.
Exposing children to lead in water at their schools is a huge problem, but what about in their homes? If the school water is contaminated, that is the same supply for local homes. Long Island CAWS (Clean Air Water Soil) is very concerned not only by the presence of lead in our schools, but also in our homes.
Lead is a highly toxic metal that can cause a range of health problems, especially in young children. When lead is absorbed into the body, it can cause damage to the brain and other vital organs, like the kidneys, nerves and blood. Lead may also cause behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures and, in extreme cases, death, according to the federal government.
Lead paints have been taken off the market since 1978. Public health laws regulate methods of handling lead paint in homes, including encapsulation, replacement, enclosure or removal. Yet, somehow, testing our water supply for lead has been haphazard, uncoordinated and ineffective.
Now, because of the health disaster in Flint, Mich., owing to lead in its water, our drinking-water supply is finally being taken seriously. The New York State Legislature recently passed legislation requiring school districts to test for lead in their drinking water. Twenty school districts on Long Island were reported to have excessive levels of lead in their water. We believe it’s even more widespread.
In a May 19 email to parents, the Bellmore School District reported that lead that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended levels for lead at two drinking-water sources at Shore Road School. Those sources were taken immediately offline and replaced. However, since the Bellmore School District was not even included among the 20 school districts cited in the news, we question whether the problem is even more widespread than is being reported.
On June 29, CNN reported that more than 5,300 water systems in America violate the EPA’s lead and copper rule, a federal regulation in place to safeguard America’s drinking water from its aging infrastructure. According to CNN’s report, more than 18 million Americans live in communities where water utilities are in violation of the law, including water districts on Long Island.
Common violations include failure to properly test water for lead, failure to report contamination to residents and failure to treat water properly to avoid lead contamination.
Now is the time to act.
Claudia Borecky and David Denenberg
Directors,
Long Island Clean Air Water Soil