Today’s
findings by the Associated Press confirm what Environment America has suspected
for some time: that prescription drugs
and other medicines are now in the tap water for millions of Americans. Many of
the nation’s top health experts have predicted this growing threat for years
and have warned about the impending challenge of protecting U.S. drinking water supplies from
increased contamination due to pharmaceutical drugs.
This is a
problem that must be addressed quickly and correctly by local, state and
federal officials including local drinking water suppliers and municipal sewage
authorities.
Environment
America promotes a multi-pronged solution to the challenges
faced by medicines, hormones and prescription drugs found in our tap water:
First, the pharmaceutical industry should prevent the unnecessary flow of its
products into our nation’s rivers and bays. Where feasible, drug makers
ought to re-engineer their products for more efficient human intake, so there
are less excess active ingredients flushed into water systems.
Moreover,
we should also apply the long-held medical maxim of “first, do no harm” to the
large volume of over-the-counter health products. While prescription
drugs are at least tested to be “safe and effective” before reaching the
market, we ought to at least certify that OTC products yield at least some
benefit for consumers before allowing them to enter our waters as
pollution. Ditto for the myriad hormones and antibiotics that are now
administered to millions of livestock every year, with little regard for
downstream consequences.
Secondly,
Environment America calls upon the nation’s water and sewage treatment
facilities to move quickly and proactively to upgrade the technology at their
facilities to protect the American public from these and other drinking water
contaminants. Experts and industry spokespeople have stated that studies
show that implementing ozone water treatment is the most effective method for
removing pharmaceuticals from our drinking water sources, going beyond the
traditional use of chlorine which deals with bacterial contamination and some
chemicals but usually cannot tackle these newly found prescription drug
pollutants. Environment America calls upon the use of the best
available technology to proactively address the growing threat of
pharmaceutical contamination in the nation’s drinking water supply.
Third,
Environment America calls on Congress and the Bush administration to
dramatically increase the funding for Clean Water and Drinking Water State
Revolving Funds which are the nation’s cornerstone program to help communities
upgrade their water and sewage treatment facilities. These projects are
important and expensive, and local water authorities are often stretched to the
limit when it comes to the extensive financial investments needed to implement
these types of projects. EPA has projected that communities across the country
will need to spend nearly $400 billion over the next 20 years to improve sewage
treatment systems in order to preserve water quality. To ensure clean
water, President Bush and Congress should fund the Clean Water SRF at $1.5
billion and prioritize funding for projects that utilize green infrastructure
to reduce polluted runoff.
Unfortunately,
President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal weakens this critical clean water
program. The proposed Clean Water SRF budget of $555 million is a cut of $134
million below the FY 08 enacted level and nearly $800 million below the FY 04
funding level of $1.34 billion. This is taking a huge step backwards when
it comes to tackling the issue of pharmaceuticals or other contaminants in America’s drinking water supply and sends
the message that protecting public health is a low priority for the current
administration.
Lastly,
Environment America believes that we should require the drug companies and pharmaceutical
manufacturers to pay for the increased cost of upgrading sewage treatment
plants and drinking water facilities to the extent that their products, when
used as intended, are polluting our waterways and drinking water.
Safe
and healthy drinking water for all Americans should be a right, not a
privilege. Yet with the recent celebration of the federal Clean Water Act’s 35th
anniversary and the current attention towards this new threat to our tap water,
it is critical that our elected officials, chemical manufacturers,
pharmaceutical companies, and local utility and sewage treatment facility
managers take the necessary steps to protect public health and ensure clean
drinking water for all Americans.
