Water,Water,Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

This notice from the EPA was just released regarding remediation of leaking fuel tanks in Indiana. The leakage contaminates ground water that is the source of drinking and household use. The toxins in fuel are often carcinogenic and very dangerous. Here is the notice:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 09-OPA128

EPA awards more than $4 million in Recovery Act funds to clean up underground petroleum leaks in Indiana

EPA: Funds help create jobs and protect Indiana's land and water.

Contact: Karen Thompson, 312-353-8547, thompson.karen@epa.gov

(Chicago, Ill - July 16, 2009) In an effort to protect people where they live, work, and play, EPA announced the distribution of more than $4 million to Indiana under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to assess and clean up underground storage tank petroleum leaks. The greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank is that the petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly one-third of all Americans.

"We're providing immediate growth opportunities for communities across the nation, as well as long-term protection from dangerous pollution in the land and water," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "EPA is putting people to work by serving our core mission of protecting human health and the environment."

This money is part of $197 million appropriated under the Recovery Act to address shovel-ready sites nationwide contaminated by petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks. The funds will be used for overseeing assessment and cleanup of leaks from underground storage tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling or unable to finance, or the cleanup is an emergency response.

EPA regional underground storage tank programs will enter into a cooperative agreement with Indiana Department of Environmental Management in July 2009. The cooperative agreement will include more detailed descriptions of state spending plans.

"The Recovery Act support for underground storage tank cleanup is a great investment in environmental protection and will provide long-term economic benefits for Indiana," said Bharat Mathur acting regional administrator in Chicago.

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009, and has directed that the Recovery Act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can visit Recovery.gov to see how every dollar is being invested.

Learn more about EPA's implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: http://www.epa.gov/recovery/

With this EPA notice as background please continue reading to find out how your back yard may be vulnerable to toxic infiltration from leaking fuel tanks even as you read this.

Those of you who live in Door County near Fish Creek and Ephraim should be very happy to hear that a new 12,000 gallon gasoline tank for leaded aircraft gas is in the process of being installed underground at the Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport off HWY 42 and Maple Grove Road.It will replace an 1,100 gallon above ground mobile fuel tank. Once installed this tank will be preparing to leak sometime in the future. This double walled tank is supposedly leak proof. As an engineer and materials scientist this is impossible. All tanks made by man will eventually leak as corrosion, vibration, freeze-thaw cycles and other factors enlarge small inherent defects into small leaks that gradually become larger. This leaded fuel tank will contain enough leaded gasoline to contaminate all water supplies in the Town of Gibraltar (including Fish Creek) and Village of Ephraim when it leaks and contaminates ground water and aquifers, despite the political assurances that you may get to the contrary.

The shore residences will find toxic gasoline chemicals in the bay, as fish and other wild life suffer and die. The EPA and WI Department of Natural Resources had better have an emergency plan in place along with the WI DOT (who authorized and funded the tank with our tax dollars. The fuel in the tank will be dispersed by individual pilots who need to gas up. Spillage will be uncontrolled but supposedly retained by by appropriate barriers. Of course the concrete barriers will also leak and gradually the uncontrolled and unmonitored spillage will contaminate the ground water also. Get your reverse osmosis water purification systems now if you haven't got one yet.

This is another example of "earmark" giveaway of tax dollars to a special interest group who in this case own private aircraft that occasionally fly in and out of Northern Door County, and serves about 35 aircraft owners who hanger their aircraft at the airport. This and thousands of other boutique airports like it are given grants by the Federal and State governments from our collective tax dollars for their own use. The Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport has received well over one million dollars over the past 5 years and is slated to receive about the same for the next 3 years unless the budget axe falls as it should.

This information is presented as a public disclosure that your elected officials generally prefer to keep quite.

Senator Feingold Listening Session

Yesterday Wisconsin's Senator Russ Feingold convened one of his regular listening sessions to receive input from Wisconsin residents. The Session was held at Sevastopol's new Town Hall in Door County, Wisconsin. Over 100 people attended and everyone who wanted to voice their opinion or ask a question was called upon by Senator Feingold to do so. Those of you who have participated in one of these sessions have experienced a unique aspect of how Senator Feingold represents all residents of Wisconsin and does so in an open serious way. This is an example of how Democracy should work and engage all citizens. Ask your Senators in your state to replicate Senator Feingold's method of reaching every state citizen. If you are a Wisconsin resident make it a point to attend a Sen. Feingold session in your county. He holds a session in every Wisconsin county annually.

Health care was the main subject brought up by the participants and Sen. Feingold responded by strongly supporting the need to provide health care for every citizen. He also stated that President Obama needed to hear from every citizen supporting a public option for health insurance coverage. Your inputs during the Congressional August recess will help provide support for a more affordable health care option. Tell your House of Representatives member and Senators that you support an affordable public option for health care coverage. Sen. Feingold reiterated the value and importance of your inputs and how they will influence the eventual legislation.

The topic that I submitted to Sen. Feingold concerned how environmental man made toxins and health issues intersect, and what can be done to minimize diseases caused by these toxins and carcinogenic man made chemicals. Sen. Feingold was very interested and stated that he was starting to examine and legislate similar issues. He promised to send me information concerning his work on this issue. These will be discussed in future blogs.

For your information my input to Senator Feingold is reproduced below. Please read it and take appropriate action yourself. Thanks.
____________________________________________________________________________________
July 11, 2009
Senator Russ Feingold
Wisconsin, USA

Subject: Prevention of Diseases and Deaths by Eliminating Toxic and Carcinogenic Man Made Chemicals from the Environment

Dear Senator Feingold,

Thank you for taking your time today to communicate with some of your constituents in Wisconsin. The purpose of my input is to encourage you to lead an effort in Congress to stop the production and dissemination of man made toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that have caused and continue to cause millions of our people to suffer and die from preventable diseases.

The health care debate in Congress is focusing on supplying affordable health care for all. This is commendable. However, coverage alone is a band aid unless we do something to prevent debilitating and deadly diseases caused by environmental man made chemicals.
Thousands of man made toxic substances contaminates water, land, air, and foods as we unwittingly assume that our government is doing everything reasonable to assure a safe environment. We believe that cancer and other diseases that kill even infants are natural occurrences. Many if not most are caused by man made carcinogenic chemicals that have poisoned our bodies and those of child bearing mothers and their babies as well. Most of the toxic and carcinogenic man made chemicals have been developed and dispersed for use during the previous 75 years.

Your legislative actions to protect the water supplies of our country is vital, and must result in the protection of mankind’s’ most essential chemical compound, water. This requires legislation to prevent the abuse and misuse of land and water supplies. However, unless water contamination by toxic and carcinogenic man made chemicals is prevented the waters essential to all life will instead continue to be harbingers of disease and death as well.

You and your staff are undoubtedly informed by the annual reports that are provided Congress concerning man made toxic and carcinogenic chemical that are continuously released into the environment and the diseases that they can cause. These reports include the “Annual Report on Carcinogens “(known as ROC) now in its 11th edition that is compiled and published by the National Institute of Health. Another report is the Center for Disease Control “National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals” published this June.

The Environmental Protection Agency prepares an annual Report, “Toxic Release Inventory Report” (known as TRI) that details the environmental toxins and bio- accumulative carcinogenic substances spewed from industrial and military sources in our nation. This report vastly underestimates the actual chemical contamination since it did not include individual releases of less than 2,500 pounds annually (recently decreased to 500 pounds) and also does not include commercial and home use discharges into our environment. The underestimated more than 4 billion pounds of toxic and carcinogenic man made chemicals into air, land, and water (eventually all these chemicals are carried into and by water) discharged in 2007 is equal to over 1,000 pound of man made toxins and carcinogenic chemicals for every man, women, and child living in our country now, and being carried in their mother’s wombs awaiting birth with contaminated blood.

As you and your staff also undoubtedly are aware our country’s municipal water supplies are under the surveillance of the EPA for purity and quality. Review of the EPA standards will show you that a very small number of chemicals are regulated compared to the many thousands that are actually in use. The ROC report includes over 250 carcinogenic man made chemicals compared to approximately 100 regulated by drinking water standards. The TRI includes over 750 bio-accumulative carcinogenic man made chemicals in the latest report. Why are so many toxic chemicals unregulated that are known to contaminate water, land, air, and foods? This question requires immediate investigation and remedial action.

A further point requiring investigation and action is related to the potential for synergistic harm caused by even trace amounts of toxic substances. The EPA purity standards for drinking water are set as if only one toxic contaminant exists by itself. This Alice in Wonderland approach defies all logic and scientific knowledge about biological organisms and humans. We become a cocktail of carcinogenic substances with every glass of water and our liver and circulatory systems, etc. cannot separate one toxin from another in our bodies. This utterly senseless approach to establishing water quality standards must be replaced with a reality based system that considers all toxic chemicals and their synergistic health dangers.

Your staff would also be well advised to discuss the water purity question with managing directors of Municipal Water and Sewerage Treatment facilities and you will discover that the water purification technology used in the USA today cannot remove the deadly trace chemicals that pass through and that we consume. The technology is obsolete and must be replaced with effective and costlier technology that is being used in several European countries. Furthermore, sewerage treatment processes now in use in the USA cannot remove deadly trace chemicals that end up discharged into lakes, oceans, or landfills and continuously increase the toxic burden carried into domestic water supplies.

Our nation’s municipal water and sewerage treatment plants must be re engineered and built to protect our people from diseases that are burdening our health care system and escalating medical treatment costs as well. A Roosevelt WPA type program is absolutely essential and will save billions if not trillions of dollars in future health care costs while providing millions of productive jobs and eventually eliminate needless diseases, deaths, and suffering caused by toxic water-borne chemicals.

The issues discussed in this letter demand immediate action that surpasses the global warming problem. Both are of great concern but millions of people are contacting cancer and other debilitating diseases this very moment because we have ignored the ongoing contamination of our planet with man made toxic and carcinogenic disease-causing chemicals that we then attempt to ameliorate by medical treatments. Unless prevention by elimination of these deadly man made chemicals is achieved we will continue our endless treadmill journey of treatment of avoidable diseases caused by toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that we permit to be developed, commercialized, and used world wide.

Thank you again for your contributions to our country and state. You are the best Senator in our country and our state and nation will always be grateful.

Yours Truly,


Zalman P. Saperstein
3155 Gibraltar Road
Fish Creek, WI 54212

920-839 2811
zeepsap@gmail.com

P.S. Attached is a copy of my book pertaining to this subject, “A Drinker’s Guide to Pure Water: Is your Water Safe?” Please share this with your staff and others as you see fit.

A Big Step to Clean the Environment--Your Action is Vital

Yesterday the House of Representatives passes the "American Clean Energy and Security Act" that passes the ball to the Senate for future action. President Obama has repeatedly supported the bill for both economic and environmental reasons. . If passed by the Senate, and when signed by President Obama, this bill will begin an era of cleaner air, water, and food that will improved health and reduce medical costs, as added benefits.

In our country alone over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released annually into the air, water and lands of our country. This is equivalent to over 1,000 pounds per man, woman and child living in our country. These toxic and often carcinogenic chemicals are the byproduct of coal burning power plants, chemical production, various manufacturing practices, and waste disposal. Many of these toxic releases are carcinogenic and they accumulate in the tissues and organs of our bodies causing diseases and deaths. . We unknowingly consume these toxic chemical when we drink water, consume food, and breathe the very air that surrounds us. We cannot entirely escape the damaging by-products of an industialized nation and world, but we can minimize our exposure and work to improve the environment for future generations.

The House passage of the "American Clean Energy and Security Act" is a big step toward clean energy and oil independence, but even more importantly when it becomes law it will start us on a pathway to a cleaner and healthier environment that is less contaminated with toxic man made chemicals. A new era will truly begin.

However for this to occur will require action by all citizens to ensure passage of the bill by the Senate. Everyone who wants a healthier life for themselves and their loved ones must assume some responsibility to achieve this goal and let your Senators hear from you. Passage of this bill is imperative if we care about the future for our nation's children and young ones. They will inherit the toxins that we allow and the environment we permit to be further degraded unless we demand change that will improve our environment. Future generations will look back to our times and commemorate the big step that began with the passage of the "American Clean Energy and Security Act". This will happen if you demand action.

Join an environmental organization such as the Sierra Club, Environmental Working Group, Bioneers or any other of your choice, and become active now. We have the opportunity to improve the quality of life for all. Do it!

But Baby--It's Good for You

The Center for Disease Control released the results of a study that proved that a toxin used in rocket fuels and certain other chemical substances is also found in powdered baby formulas. However, the CDC did not release the names of the formulas to the public. Why? Are they suggesting that it is better not to know? Are the manufacturer's blocking the full report to hide the information? Or are the indicating that "Baby, It's Good For You"? Read the link to the news article and then read about the toxicity of perchlorate, and get real mad about their sealed lips. Our federal Food And Drug Administration has also failed to take action on toxic perchlorate in food and water supplies and seems to brush off the harm by telling the public that it is a naturally occurring substance. It occasionally and not regularly is, but whatever the source there is no justification to allow poisoning. Tell your elected officials to reveal the manufacturers who are responsible for this travesty. Get the truth out and tell all your friends and relatives to speak out against what may be a governmental and corporate white wash. Save the children and do something to assure safe water and foods now! Prevent perchlorate contamination of baby formulas and drinking water.

Something That Kills and is More Important than the Economy

$$$$$$$$$---the economy, the bonuses, the liars and cheats, the waste of tax dollars----this all matters. But, compared to the daily poisoning of your air, water, and land and eventually your bodies these are minor matters. Your health and that of your loved ones are the most important aspect of life, or should be. Therefore, please start informing yourself about the poisons that our government permits to be discharged into our environment daily, year after year without telling you about the consequences. Year after year for more than 75 years, industrial operations and government agencies have discharged toxic, bioaccumulative, carcinogenic chemicals into lakes, rivers, drinking water, air, and land that poisons drinking water and virtually all foods that we consume. These bioaccumulative man made toxins cause incurable diseases including cancer, and infant diseases that are often chronic and fatal. Nonetheless, we seem to be preoccupied with the talking heads of Congress and the greater media most of whom who are either ignorant of or choose to ignore these life and death issues.

Please read this EPA link and begin to inform yourself and do something constructive about stopping these murderous actions.This TRI prepared is must reading for all. Read it. Become informed. Do something to help stop the man made poisoning.

The economy will recover. New jobs will soon be created, and banks will start lending. However, when economic recovery occurs we will still be poisoning ourselves and our children as usual. Wake up and tell the talking media heads and politicians to do something about the poisons that are sickening and killing us. Stop the blatant disregard of the ongoing poisoning of our children. Merely publishing the Toxic Release Inventory annually and doing nothing about the continual toxic discharges must end. More than 4 billion pounds of these carcinogenic chemicals are discharged annually in the USA alone, and much of this is concentrated near large metropolitan areas, where the population density is greatest.

If our Congress paid attention to the TRI they would have at least acknowledged the health problems that result. I doubt that you or anyone you know has heard anything about this reality. Our Congress and EPA seems to be more engrossed in the temporal issues and the use of band aids rather than real solutions to lasting problems. If we allow this kind of attitude to persist the ultimate cost will exceed the national budget as the overburdened medical system attempts to cure diseases that should never have occurred but for the bioaccumulative carcinogenic toxins that we ingest.

The National Institute of Health also issues an annual report " Report on Carcinogens" (RoC). The eleventh issue of this annual report to Congress was released recently and this link will allow you to become informed. I recommend that you inform yourself about the contents of this document that supposedly is read by our Congressional members or staffs as should the TRI. I suspect that both reports are filed or trash canned by most of our elected officials in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere and not read or referred to. The RoC describes the cancer-causing properties of over 250 common bioaccumulative toxins that are released into our environment by industry and governments. This report can be used as a cross reference with the TRI to connect some of the cancer-causing agents that are responsible for millions of cancers and deaths annually. Our elected officials seem to ignore these facts as do most of us.

Yes, the economic issues of today are significant, but they pale when compared to the harm caused by man made toxins that are continually released into our environment. When illness or cancer strikes a loved one we grieve and ask why. The answer is often "we allowed carcinogenic man made chemicals to poison us without knowing". Wake up and become informed and take this life and death issue to your elected officials in Washington and demand action now. Your life may depend upon it.

The Lost Environmental Issues

We have barely heard a word from either John McCain or Barack Obama about the serious global environmental issues confronting us. Yet these issues dangle precariously about us springing unanticipated environmental threats continuously. Water, air, and land pollution endangers the whole globe. We allow the indiscriminate poisoning of drinking water from man made industrial sources, and breathe toxic air laden with industrial emissions that are barely, if at all, regulated. We permit carcinogenic substances to remain for years and decades after indifferent corporations poisoned the earth, atmosphere, surface water and ground water we depend upon. Such realities are as vital to our well being and health as any economic issue, and yet they are seldom given any press or political importance. This is a major omission, and must change.

The two principal presidential candidates offer significantly different approaches to environmental sustainability and improvement. I suggest that you examine their positions and past actions to determine for yourself who represents your environmental interests more closely. Two Alter Net voter guides, one on water issues , and the other on general environmental issues, are useful to gain some pertinent information the respective views and actions of Obama and McCain on these issues. Both guides are constructed from a progressive viewpoint in terms of issues, but are very factual.

Read them and tailor your decision for whom to vote with these vital issues in mind. I have, and they reinforced my decision to vote for Senator Obama for President.

Man-Made Environmental Toxins and Your Vote

For those of you interested in the ongoing research that links environmental man-made toxins that are in drinking water, land, and air you must read this link: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-25-04.asp
After you read this link consider the following blog that hopefully will inspire some of you to vote for real environmental change that will protect our lives and future generations from man-made disease-causing toxins.

Those of you living in Northeast Wisconsin where PCB and related man-made toxins contaminate the lakes and rivers should be particularly interested in this blog. Unfortunately, similar issues prevail wherever we live .

Why does the EPA and state department of natural resources continue to advocate actions that disregards the huge and growing body of evidence that proves that many chronic and often debilitating and fatal diseases are caused by very minute concentrations of man-made toxins that accumulate over many years in our bodies. These toxic substances are also absorbed and adsorbed in foods that we consume and are transferred to body organs where they gradually accumulate. The gradual accumulation eventually eventually causes cellular abnormalities that often leads to incurable chronic and often fatal diseases. Federal reports including, the NIH Report on Carcinogens and the EPA Toxic Release Inventory verifies the validity of these statements. Read them and don't take my word alone. You may wonder why these reports are published and largely ignored by our elected government officials.

The corporate manufacturers and polluters of toxic and carcinogenic substances have poisoned and continue to poison our drinking water, air, and land while the EPA, DNR, state and federal governments refuse or neglect to take definitive actions to REMOVE toxins from contaminated river beds, lakes, and contaminated land. and vigorously restrict the future manufacture and use of these bio-accumulative toxins that new born infants are exposed to from the moment they are conceived and develop within their mother's womb. When will we the people DEMAND action from our elected government officials to stop this blatant neglect of country that they are responsible for protecting? When will the people count more than the corporate poisoners and the moneybag lobbyists who feather the pockets of government official with campaign dollars so that their profit interest are protected and secured?

We hear much about "Homeland Security" nowadays, but when have you heard mention of protection against the man-made toxins that poison us without a single terrorist involved, unless you implicate our own government and the corporate poisoners that they apparently shelter? How many millions of us have been poisoned by our own government's neglect as they continue to minimize environmental protection from man-made bio-accumulative, disease-causing substances? This blatant neglect and "conscious/unconscious" protection of corporate profit-making interests must not be allowed to continue. Your vote in the forthcoming elections can make a significant impact on future environmental protection of our environment if you demand changes and vote accordingly.

We must vote for individuals who are committed to protecting the common people of our country. The time to act is upon us. Vote to protect yourself and future generations from the corporate/government neglect that allows man-made poisons and carcinogens to contaminate the environment and cause otherwise preventable disease and death. We must not stand idly by and allow the entrenched political and corporate interest to control our well-being and destiny. Become informed, involved, and proactive and stand up for real environmental protection.

The Preamble of our Constitution commits the people of the United States to "promote the general welfare". When our government sanctions the poisoning of the environment and our people how can it be following the people's constitution? The elected politicians must be reminded that : " We the people of The United States, in order to form a more perfect union,establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity , do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." [Sept. 17, 1787] . VOTE TO REMIND THEM.

Let us vote to restore their memory as they take their oath to uphold our Constitution.