Critical Analysis of "The Threat to Our Drinking Water"
Read Article here:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/opinion/the-threats-to-our-drinking-water.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
For my critical analysis on an op-ed piece, I decided to read and analyze "The Threat to Our Drinking Water" by David S. Beckman. In this op-ed Beckman discusses the current issues that the United States is having with water contamination and pollution. He points out the causes of these occurrences, the historical events that condoned safe water policies, and what, in his opinion, the United States should do about these water crises.
Beckman opens up his op-ed with a thought; this thought stimulates the mind by saying that we take our tap water for granted. We do not think for a second the pleasures that we have from having this clean water available to us 24/7. For many other countries, clean water is a privilege and not a necessity. I agree with Beckman on this aspect because many people do not realize how lucky we are to have pure water that we do not need to worry about. We should learn to appreciate that we are able to turn on any faucet in our house and consume clean water.
The op-ed goes on to say that recently, we have not been so lucky with clean water. In this past year, there have been two major instances where a big population of people had their water interrupted due to contamination. One incidence occurred in Charleston, West Virginia, where a chemical that is used to process coal leaked into the Elk River. This left around 300,000 without clean tap water from the river. Another instance occurred in Toledo, Ohio. In this situation, an algae bloom released toxin, known as microcystin, contaminated Lake Erie’s drinking water.
Both of these situations were caused by pollution due to human error and the water plants that were put into place to get rid of the pollution were ineffective. Beckman blames the local communities for the cause of the pollution. Their negligence caused the contaminations. The Charleston contamination was obviously caused by an industrial spill. The Toledo contamination was also due to human error. Polluted runoff, from activities like agriculture, created an environment where the algae blooms were able to thrive and release microcystin. Beckman emphasizes that these events were caused by humans because he wants to show that they are in our control and avoidable. I also agree with Beckman for this because it seems that both of these events could have been avoided if we just controlled our pollution levels and not commit unnecessary mistakes, by which things, like spillages, occur.
Beckman then goes to say that these events occurred, even though there were set ways to avoid them. In the 1970s, the Congress introduced the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act to the country. This let the country update any water pollution standards to help the environment. The water pollution policies for the Charleston incident were obviously ignored and same with the incident at Toledo. Moreover, Lake Erie is a vast area of freshwater, so Toledo could have tapped into another water source. The citizens of Toledo had the ability to have water during the time of the pollution, but that was overseen. In my opinion, these problems of having polluted water could have easily been avoided if the towns just followed their own laws or just thought out of the box.
Beckman proposes many strategies that can help the United States improve on water pollution. One of these strategies is to give enforcers a stronger ability to address and fine any threats by corporations. I think that proposing this is a good idea because it shows the seriousness of the matter and will stop companies from breaking the law. Companies commit these crimes because it is cheaper for them to just pay the fine rather than lose the money that they would be earning. If the fines become more expensive or more detrimental, companies will not break the policies.
The biggest issue that Beckman sees with trying to make all of these improvements is how to finance them. The forecasted budget for keeping the tap water clean for the next 20 years is north of 650 billion dollars. In the past years, the Environmental Protection Agency has only spent about 100 billion. I think 650 billion is a nearly impossible number to reach, so the United States should find a different way to save our water.
I really like Beckman’s idea about quality and quantity. Right now, the US takes on the quality and quantity issues of tap water separately. Beckman proposes to combine the issues together and have a joint strategy. This is better, in my opinion, because when one aspect is being decided on, a joint strategy would take into account how that decision affects the other side. For example, in my town, they were fertilizing the grass around a reservoir to show that it looks more beautiful. The town council wanted to increase the quality of the town. When they did this, the reservoir became contaminated and the town had to use a more intense filtering cycle, which in turn uses more money and made the quantity of the water less. I think that if the town was more careful and took precautions to stop the contamination at the beginning, they would have spent less money overall and the water quantity would have been the same. This might makes things more complicated, but I see it as the best way to tackle this problem because there is an overall benefit to the actions, rather than just a immediate benefit that causes problems in the future.
There is also a “green movement” that proposes a plan to tackle the runoff problem, as Beckman stated. I agree with Beckman in the sense that this plan will work, but moreover, the essence of creating these unique plans is going to be a crucial part of solving all of the tap water problems. When doing more research on the "green movement", I came across "green politics". This is the idea of having the environment and the limited resources that we have on this earth in mind when making decisions. I think that "green politics" organizations would be a fit to govern the rules and regulations of the drinking water in the United States. Their four pillar ideology of Ecological wisdom, Social justice, Grassroots democracy, and Nonviolence will help create a system that is beneficial for everyone, and the environment.
I think that Beckman analyzes the water contamination problems extremely well and gives many good ways to combat these problems.
Photo by: Shannon Freshwater
Beckman opens up his op-ed with a thought; this thought stimulates the mind by saying that we take our tap water for granted. We do not think for a second the pleasures that we have from having this clean water available to us 24/7. For many other countries, clean water is a privilege and not a necessity. I agree with Beckman on this aspect because many people do not realize how lucky we are to have pure water that we do not need to worry about. We should learn to appreciate that we are able to turn on any faucet in our house and consume clean water.
The op-ed goes on to say that recently, we have not been so lucky with clean water. In this past year, there have been two major instances where a big population of people had their water interrupted due to contamination. One incidence occurred in Charleston, West Virginia, where a chemical that is used to process coal leaked into the Elk River. This left around 300,000 without clean tap water from the river. Another instance occurred in Toledo, Ohio. In this situation, an algae bloom released toxin, known as microcystin, contaminated Lake Erie’s drinking water.
Both of these situations were caused by pollution due to human error and the water plants that were put into place to get rid of the pollution were ineffective. Beckman blames the local communities for the cause of the pollution. Their negligence caused the contaminations. The Charleston contamination was obviously caused by an industrial spill. The Toledo contamination was also due to human error. Polluted runoff, from activities like agriculture, created an environment where the algae blooms were able to thrive and release microcystin. Beckman emphasizes that these events were caused by humans because he wants to show that they are in our control and avoidable. I also agree with Beckman for this because it seems that both of these events could have been avoided if we just controlled our pollution levels and not commit unnecessary mistakes, by which things, like spillages, occur.
Beckman then goes to say that these events occurred, even though there were set ways to avoid them. In the 1970s, the Congress introduced the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act to the country. This let the country update any water pollution standards to help the environment. The water pollution policies for the Charleston incident were obviously ignored and same with the incident at Toledo. Moreover, Lake Erie is a vast area of freshwater, so Toledo could have tapped into another water source. The citizens of Toledo had the ability to have water during the time of the pollution, but that was overseen. In my opinion, these problems of having polluted water could have easily been avoided if the towns just followed their own laws or just thought out of the box.
Beckman proposes many strategies that can help the United States improve on water pollution. One of these strategies is to give enforcers a stronger ability to address and fine any threats by corporations. I think that proposing this is a good idea because it shows the seriousness of the matter and will stop companies from breaking the law. Companies commit these crimes because it is cheaper for them to just pay the fine rather than lose the money that they would be earning. If the fines become more expensive or more detrimental, companies will not break the policies.
The biggest issue that Beckman sees with trying to make all of these improvements is how to finance them. The forecasted budget for keeping the tap water clean for the next 20 years is north of 650 billion dollars. In the past years, the Environmental Protection Agency has only spent about 100 billion. I think 650 billion is a nearly impossible number to reach, so the United States should find a different way to save our water.
I really like Beckman’s idea about quality and quantity. Right now, the US takes on the quality and quantity issues of tap water separately. Beckman proposes to combine the issues together and have a joint strategy. This is better, in my opinion, because when one aspect is being decided on, a joint strategy would take into account how that decision affects the other side. For example, in my town, they were fertilizing the grass around a reservoir to show that it looks more beautiful. The town council wanted to increase the quality of the town. When they did this, the reservoir became contaminated and the town had to use a more intense filtering cycle, which in turn uses more money and made the quantity of the water less. I think that if the town was more careful and took precautions to stop the contamination at the beginning, they would have spent less money overall and the water quantity would have been the same. This might makes things more complicated, but I see it as the best way to tackle this problem because there is an overall benefit to the actions, rather than just a immediate benefit that causes problems in the future.
There is also a “green movement” that proposes a plan to tackle the runoff problem, as Beckman stated. I agree with Beckman in the sense that this plan will work, but moreover, the essence of creating these unique plans is going to be a crucial part of solving all of the tap water problems. When doing more research on the "green movement", I came across "green politics". This is the idea of having the environment and the limited resources that we have on this earth in mind when making decisions. I think that "green politics" organizations would be a fit to govern the rules and regulations of the drinking water in the United States. Their four pillar ideology of Ecological wisdom, Social justice, Grassroots democracy, and Nonviolence will help create a system that is beneficial for everyone, and the environment.
I think that Beckman analyzes the water contamination problems extremely well and gives many good ways to combat these problems.
Photo by: Shannon Freshwater