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Instead of focusing on the clean water countless Americans lack, the President has been fixated on shower pressure. Speaking at campaign events over the past week, President Trump claimed that the water and energy conservation measures he’s worked to overturn somehow hinder women from washing their hair and keeping it beautiful. If suburban women truly […]
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This week the vulnerabilities in the nation’s drinking water supplies once again came into full view. In California, a study for the state’s water resources control board revealed that 60% of California’s public water supply wells contain toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals. Meanwhile, citizens in Flint, Michigan filed a lawsuit on behalf of 2,600 children claiming that three big banks that were funding a pipeline project caused the city to rely on the Flint River as a temporary water source.
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Lake Jackson, Texas, a city in the greater Houston area, is “purg[ing] its water system for 60 days” after a brain-eating amoeba killed a 6-year old boy, NBC News reported. The city is currently under a boil-water notice, and officials have announced that it could take as long as 3 months to make the water safe.
Why This Matters: There is little data on the risk of this amoeba, says the CDC. More information is needed on how “a standard might be set to protect human health and how public health officials would measure and enforce such a standard.”
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a rock-steady vote in favor of environmental protection and sympathetic on issues involving clean water and air.
Why This Matters: There are many challenges to President Trump’s rollbacks of environmental laws that are working their way to the Supreme Court. Once there, the Court can effectively re-write those laws narrowing them considerably by upholding the Trump deregulatory position even if it is contrary to prior interpretations or other plausible interpretations of the statute itself.
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By Julia Fine, ODP Contributing Writer The current global pandemic has effectively made water access even more crucial, as lack of clean water exacerbates the spread of COVID-19. One non-profit in Mexico City, a place with an immense amount of rainfall yet a scarcity of potable water for the city’s 20 million residents, is trying […]
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The last night of the Democratic National Convention began with climate change front and center. Vice President Joe Biden infused climate change throughout his acceptance speech — sometimes explicitly and other times as an allusion in his vision for the future.
Why This Matters: Climate change and the environment are on the ballot and only one candidate will take them on — Joe Biden.
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