Conscious Lifestyles Radio

Water… Everywhere. But Not A Drop To Drink?

“You never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” — Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

The Saturday, March 19th “Conscious Lifestyles” show was a conversation with an ordinary citizen who is fed up and speaking out against polluted ground water, and with Lois Gibbs, the former Leader of Love Canal and Founder of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice [CHEJ]. www.chej.org

I also spoke with the CHEJ’s Science Director, Steve Lester, and the water contamination issue is much bigger than we all have been led to believe.

What is Strontium 90? Why is it in our water, in women’s breast milk, and in all mammalian milk?
Why are Chlorine, Fluoride, heavy metals [like Lead and Mercury], pesticides, herbicides, household paint and cleaning residues showing up in ALL water, both city water and private well water?

The fact that the responsibility for our drinking water is spread very thinly among several local, state, and federal agencies is part of the problem. Violations are going unreported, and it has come to light that way too many ‘good ole boy’ politicians are ignoring this wake-up call to our world.

Water is the lifeblood of all life. Without it, nothing can survive.

Strontium 90 is Radioactive waste water from Nuclear power plants. This is, unbelievably, legal. Ever wonder why most Nuclear plants are near a river, ocean, or a body of water? They dump their waste into our waterways. And this is supposed to be “clean” energy?

Sorry, but I don’t want Radioactive oceans, lakes, streams, and reservoirs.

The cattle and factory farm industries are also to blame. This toxic sludge is a gargantuan issue to the well being of our watersheds that no one in elected office appears to take notice of, or even bother to mention in the same breath when they proclaim ‘Earth Day’ and ‘Going Green’ to consumers/taxpayers/voters.

The cattle feedlots from the big, agri-business ‘factory farms’ are polluting clean water at an alarming rate. The nitrates that kill off the oxygen in the water are literally killing off the natural life that, for millions of years, kept our water clean for drinking, eating, growing food, and even taking a bath.

All water is inter-related all over the world. Our streams run into the oceans, and the wells and aquifers we rely on are taking in the toxic waste that runs, much like the veins in our bodies, all over the earth.

Additionally, oil leaks from pipelines are disastrous.

The oil and gas fracking that has ruined much of the western states’ drinking water, and they have not stopped there. They have now found political give-aways on the East Coast, and are more than happy to start fracking near Upstate New York’s biggest watersheds for NYC.

The additional water contaminants that are disease causing are from Agriculture chemicals sprayed on ‘conventionally grown’ food and the Genetically Modified Organisms that are Frankenstein-like chemical catastrophes made in laboratories and now patented and sold as “food.”

Consumer and farm use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and large power plant discharge called “thermal pollution” are the other big toxins that are finding their way into our drinking water, and consequently, poisoning us.

The States with the most violations for polluted drinking water in public schools:

#1. California
#2. Ohio
#3. Maine
#4. Connecticut
#5. Indiana

We are literally allowing both big and small [consumer] choices to poison our children, and destroy all life.

Electing honest politicians to take action on this most important issue is no small task. They all say the same things and make the same promises for the Environment, Education, etc., etc.

But now, more than ever, is the time to see behind the political masks and start to demand action for our clean water rights. Look at track records of any person running for office, see beyond the too-often empty promises. The time is now. That’s all we’ve got to get it right for our one home… the Earth.