Weed-Killer Found in Public Drinking Water, EPA Silent

One of the nation’s most widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results.

Records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer atrazine in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008 were obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund under the Freedom of Information Act. An analysis found that yearly average levels of atrazine in drinking water violated the federal standard at least ten times in communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, all states where farmers rely heavily on the herbicide.

In addition, more than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers. In none of those cases were residents alerted. (Source)

This warms my soul.  Weed-killer amounts above safety limits and we wonder why our kids are growing dumber.  Not only is KFC trying to kill us with its new heart attach combo, but now our own government doesn’t seem to give a shit.  Honestly the irony of the timing of this is amusing.  We’re trying to pass Health Care Reform and the EPA has failed to inform people in 4 states that they are drinking water with weed killer in it.  I particularly like this part though:

In interviews, EPA officials did not dispute the data but said they do not consider atrazine a health hazard and said they did not believe the agency or state authorities had failed to properly inform the public. “We have concluded that atrazine does not cause adverse effects to humans or the environment,” said Steve Bradbury, deputy office director of the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs.

Are you kidding me?  Growing up they used to show us those videos in school with Mr. Yuk stickers talking about how we need to stay away from house hold chemicals and not drink them.  And here, we have the Environmental Protection Agency trying to tell us that higher than allowed levels of WEED KILLER have been found in drinking water…but “it’s not a problem.”  This is one of those times where if you got a group of 5th graders together and told them “Hey kids, we’re going to put Weed Killer you your milk” even they would tell you to go to hell.