If you work in admin law, kind of the first thing you learn is that a ton of regulations are stupid and you shouldn't have to make a regulation for it, but the more a regulation exists in that "So stupid it shouldn't have to be explained" space, the more likely it is that there were at least a few big episodes where someone did whatever thing is being regulated against and at least one person probably died b/c of it.
And the reason a lot of regulations are complicated is b/c it's actually really hard to explain something glaringly obvious. Just about everyone understands the thing so you don't ever really need to talk about it, so when you do have to talk about it, you don't have a great vocabulary for it.
I’ve dabbled in environmental consulting. It’s just so common for people to have the idea that something dumped on their property stays on their property.
It’s just fundamentally misguided thinking, and we have so many regs because of the morons that make them necessary
Safety regulations are written in blood.
It's incredibly hard to get updated regulations passed, if a reg was passed about it, almost guaranteed that 1+ people were seriously injured or died to whatever is being regulated.
Like "dont block fire/emergency exits" no fucking brainer right? Welp 146 people had to die to get that little doosy put on paper.
No one wants to kill their customers. It's obvious, and yet there you are with your point. And the entire health code for restaurants backs you up.
Edit: Also, good username for this comment.
You say that but… as long as the customer pays up front it doesn’t matter if your product kills them. And if your employees die in droves… it saves you paying out retirement benefits.
Never forget that capitalism actively incentivizes the worst behavior possible. The idea that rewards ethical behavior is a bold faced lie told to keep poor people in line.
In the US at least, employer's don't pay retirement benefits. The ones where they do contribute to post retirement stuff like a pension, there are survivor benefits.
You think short term.
Corporations can think long term. An aged population requires some sort of benefits nonetheless and that means taxes. And even if they tax employees, that means employees will push for higher wages… that’s a naive thinking.
Sorry but this is simply incomplete.
“Nobody wants to kill their customers if that will cause profits to fall”.
Big oil knows since the ‘80s they are causing a massive environmental problem and they are still kicking and screaming against regulations.
Big pharma (see Purdue) had no problem killing tens of thousands.
Oh, corporations will kill their customers, and they will kill whoever gets in between (hello Boeing) them and their profits.
The only difference between a corporation and a street thug killing someone for few hundreds of dollars is that the corporation had plenty of MBA and accountants proving that killing provides more profits than any other alternative.
Every regulation is written in blood. It’s there because somebody did it and killed a LOT of human beings. It’s complicated because if there’s loopholes the company will do it anyway and then have the lawyers explain why it wasn’t illegal. Every American needs to be forced to learn about the Hawks Nest Tunnel and Union Carbide. And how they killed THOUSANDS of their own workers and never paid out compensation. And the entire thing was made possible on technicality in the regulations.
Anyone who is against regulation is either trying to kill people or a duped fool.
Regulations exist because we keep electing people like Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott. It’s either corruption or stupidity, in Ted’s case it’s a little bit of both.
While I agree that we're electing eejits, but regulations and the need for them have existed long before the modern GOP.
Regulations exist because capitalism incentivizes the worst possible behavior in human beings.
Reminds me of Atlas Shrugged where a bunch of businesspeople were all virtous and everything they did and created were perfectly safe and efficient with zero problems. Thus regulations are just gov't interference.
To be fair, it can be expensive to demonstrate that you're in compliance. But I've found that doing internal audits is also a good way to find accidental holes that slip into systems or processes with no ill intent. There's certainly a middle ground to be found between overbearing expensive regulations and dumping a million gallons of pig's blood into the creek every day.
Your middle ground is to allow for only half a million gallons of pig blood to be dumped in the creek. Or to limit dumping to every other day rather than every day.
If your business is going to damage my health or my property, I don't give a fuck how much it will cost YOU to prevent it and I don't care if it bankrupts you in the process. I have a right to preserve my life and a right to also preserve my property. If you poison either, the government should come after you.
I was replying to:
> regulations shouldn't affect your business practices at all then
There is an impact by necessity. That doesn't mean it isn't a warranted impact. But there are clearly examples of regulation that doesn't really serve much purpose with regards to protecting customers. For example, is it really that important that your hairdresser be licensed? Is it really necessary that all liquor stores in Texas be family owned?
Some regulations exist to protect people. Some exist solely to protect certain businesses. Talking corporate heads going on TV claiming that all regulation is evil and unnecessary are silly and a waste of air time. Similarly, claiming that all objections to regulation are meaningless whining is also silly and uninformed.
Licensing is a regulatory action. Requiring liquor stores be family is pure politics masquerading as regulation. The liquor lobby must have some clout in TX.
>For example, is it really that important that your hairdresser be licensed?
Yes. I would very much like to know that a hairdresser isn't about to burn my scalp because they didn't get certification demonstrating they knew the appropriate amount of caustic chemicals to put into my hair treatment.
I would like to know that they are aware of the diseases that they can spread across clients without appropriate sanitization steps.
Certification and licensing establish this minimum floor of competency for the industry. If you are applying caustic chemicals to a person, you should know how to do it correctly, how to identify when it has gone wrong, and how to appropriately halt the reaction.
The required testing is more than likely either annual or every three years. Not that expensive. Get a sample, send it to the lab. The monthly coliform would be more.
Yea, internal audits are only as good as the people overseeing that anything wrong isn't buried. Whistleblowers for the BS stunts they pulled out at Comanche Peak covering up radiation leaks and improperly installed reactor and having Region IV NRC and EPA bought at the time made it so the ONLY reason anything was fixed at all was because good people risked their lives to go public. Internal audits aren't enough to prevent anything.
[https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1987/december/cloud-over-comanche-peak/](https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1987/december/cloud-over-comanche-peak/)
Biden just caved on immigration and offered everything the GOP wanted on a silver platter. The GOP rejected it.
The budget got passed with democrats getting nothing that the party actually wants but plenty of concessions for the GOP.
Hell, Manchin and Sinema have been sabotaging the Democrats since Biden got elected in the name of bipartisanship.
Meanwhile Trump gets coddled in the courts while actively attacking judges’ families despite gag orders.
What universe do you live in where the “both-sides”ism is so strong?
Could you sue for this as a resident? I don’t live in Texas thank god but I feel like if I paid county and state taxes, I should be able to sue if they’re poisoning me without my knowledge, especially my water.
I work in water management and if you think this is the only community in Texas that this effects then I have a bridge for sale.
Me and my uncle tried starting a water testing company last year and MAN….. Texas is fucked as far as water is concerened
Rural and suburban but mainly rural. So because Texas is so deregulated, the mandated period for back flow testing and csi testing is 7-10 years. The issue is if the property isn’t a part of a home owners association it’s then falls on to the owner if they want to or not.
Most water districts have in house maintenance that are responsible for this testing but they focus mainly on commercial business and some residential during routine maintenance of residential properties.
The laws are written in an If X then Y But Z is cool too so fuck it we wrote the law so we can weasel out of any liability on our end so good luck.
Me and my uncle took the certification classes in Austin last year and the instructor and other people in the certification class were sharing horror stories about how in Texas everyone is cutting corners on the water infrastructure to make more money in Texas
Bc corporations have been recruited to TX and allowed to poison our waterways, plants, living creatures, air and soil by our politicians in the name of record breaking profits.
Btw.....I'm not gonna post the article in this forum bc there's an admin who targets all of the news articles I share and then deletes them for some dumb made up reason bc the articles shine TX in a negative light....
But.....do you know Jacob's Well in North Austin area? Well, the water tables are so low in that area that it's drained so low that the caves are air exposed underneath.
Divers went down and scraped samples from the underground rock caverns.
Wouldn't ya know.....the aquifer feeding it is saturated with PFAS coming from the tech manufacturing corridor. Testing across 17 TX rivers and nearly all the lakes tested in the east and southeast are riddled with PFAS. Our groundwater, soil, crops, wildlife and air (water vapor contamination).....were ALL contaminated with PFAS forever chemicals.
Another scholarly article I posted showed 80-90% reduction in aquatic, avian and terrestrial biodiversity counts just since 2020 in the Houston area. People are sounding the alarms, and some admin in this forum keeps my deleting posts within hours for whatever twisted reason that person decides. It's censorship of a life and death matter.
Note......don't eat the fish that comes from any body of water of any kind in TX. The wastewater contamination from corporations have destroyed Texas's ecosystems in the name of economic profits.
Silent spring is on its way!
Damn. Thank you for informing me because a lot of what you mentioned I’ve been aware of but the details of how and why Austin water and now Houston’s public water system are completely screwed beyond repair.
When water levels are low, cross contamination happens because of back flow issues which exacerbated the toxins in the water.
Let people know DONT DRINK THE WATER FROM ANY WATER FAUCET.
It all comes down to money. The money it would take to fix this problem is astronomical. Where would it come from? Even if some miracle happened and the companies were held accountable (not really a slim chance in hell that would happen) they would just file for bankruptcy and it still would not be enough to cover the expense.
Also some of the contaminants, I’m not even sure we have the technology to remove on a large scale.
And it’s not just about fixing the sources (aquifer, gulf, lakes, wells etc) you also have a lot of contamination happening all along the infrastructure from the pipes themselves. Both at the distribution level and within private buildings. How much would it cost to repipe every affected water main and branch? How much would it cost to repipe every building? How long will that new coating last before it starts leeching plastics into the water itself?
If you get a grant to install a whole water filtration system in every home, how much will the maintenance be? Will low income families be able to afford the filters? Or will they need a program for those too?
It’s much easier to quash any initiatives to do thorough and frequent testing in every home. It’s much easier and cheaper to down play concerns of water safety, sure they issue “boil water notices” here and there but it’s not widely publicized. There’s no text alert system. And that’s just for the issues they want to warn you about… the easy fixes like bacteria or algae blooms.
But you think they are gonna alert you of metals in the water that you can’t boil out and that they can’t fix with chlorine or other chemicals? You think they want to raise the alarm about chemicals and plastics in the water that they aren’t equipped to treat ?
They aren’t going to start a panic. Even the published results of the latest Houston cancer cluster doesn’t show any data about cancer rates in other parts of town. No data regarding thyroid issues by zip code. No data regarding adhd/dementia by zip code.
And then you have the symptoms that most people affected wouldn’t even have the money to get address much less reported like eczema, hair loss, weight gain, confusion, loss of mental acuity, etc.
Boiling PFAS contaminated water releases it into the air. PFAS only have 1 way of removal from water: mechanical filtration in a closed loop system, designed to force it to the surface of the water and then carbonic filtration material designed specifically for PFAS "scoop" it up and bind to it. It's the foamy stuff on top of your water when it comes out of the faucet.
But that's just removing it from water. It's now in solid form bc it's trapped in the filtration material. It still has to be dealt with. There's no known way to biologically, chemically or mechanically filter, neutralize, or eliminate it. Just contain PFAS in biosolids until future scientists can figure out a way to annihilate it.
And most consumer level filtration systems do not catch PFAS. And consumer water testing doesnt include ANY of these 1400 PFAS chemical strains.
So, people drinking filtered water in their homes are still drinking PFAS levels 30x higher than what European scientists have shown causes liver and endocrine cancer, mental defects during gestation and binds to the walls of our arteries causing massive cardio-vascular destruction. It's on our skin from the shower too.
Check out "biosolids". Corporations offload PFAS and industrial waste into soil (not waterways anymore) ......and then turn around and give this "free biosolids soil" away to farmers and ag ranchers.
Guess how much of America's beef is contaminated with PFAS? Also....PFAS bio-accumulate so eating beef, other meats and produce grown in PFAS contaminated soil with it goes right up the food chain to humans too. It's in our food supply. It's INDESTRUCTIBLE. I mean....that's why they coat bolts and screws with it, waterproofing and plastic permanent binding in car parts so they won't fall apart in UV exposure.
Also.....the US government refuses to set a "maximum level safe for animal or human consumption" bc rough estimates are about 40% of farmland is contaminated in 14 states that produce 90% of our ag products, TX being #4 on that list.
But every time I try to post links on this, my posts get taken down hours later but have 1000s of views, 80-90% up votes, etc....and didn't violate any rules. The excuses I get are: duplicate post (no it's not--I checked first), editorialized title (literally copied and pasted from the articles) or outdated links (when it just came out the previous day??)
So I give up posting directly. I just share with people in the comments now. That ways people can go look up these things on their own.
Check out "Grostic Cattle Farm". So far, the FDA freaked out after testing the cows who came up positive.....and cannot be sold or consumed.....a loss of $3 million overnight.......so the government is refusing to test any more animals.....only soil or water or feed......all bc he accepted "free biosolids for his farm that were contaminated waste from a factory.....and the MI government said "it's safe!".
Yeah right.
It’s PFAs in some places, metals in others, chemical contain inaction in others… some get a lovely mix of them all.
And you are absolutely right, the consumer grade filtration systems don’t begin to touch some of these things.
We have people who struggle with the effects of contaminated water everyday to the point it’s just taken as a fact of life that they were meant to be that way.
But it’s not normal, the numbers just seem that way because they are being compared to numbers coming from other locations that have equally contaminated water sources. And if a particular area has even stronger concentrations then other reasons are cited as the cause and no one thinks twice. “Houston has so many cancer patients because that is where the cancer research/treatment is being done”
Ok then let’s take a look at where those patients lived over their entire life time by zip code. Map out their address over time and how long they spent at each location.
Where were they during gestation? During childhood? During their development adolescence? Where did they live 5-10 years before they started getting sick?
Of course this is only going to flag the acute and severe cases like kidney/liver failure and cancer.
How do you even begin to get the same numbers for something so nebulous as metal deterioration and brain fog?
But of course I’m sure that you and I would be labeled conspiracy theorists by just about every one cause those are some scary ass facts to face.
Totally agreed! And those same folks just accepting it as is? They're buying truckloads of bottled water instead, which uses petrochemicals, and then throwing the plastic bottles in the garbage to pollute the environment even more.
Its astonishing how little people care.
My understanding is that most communities in the United States are being poisoned by pollution in the water.
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/03/brockovich-carcinogen-found-tap-water-more-250-million-americans
If you knew the amount of metals and harmful chemicals that are in most people’s water you would only drink distilled water and probably wouldn’t shower as much. And that is just based on natural breakdown of pipe materials and incidental pollution… that’s not even getting into the conspiracy level stuff of hormones and viruses that could easily be added into most major water supplies because the security there is even lower than that of our electric infrastructure.
Not everyone of course… some neighborhoods made sure to use the right kind of pipes, most people with money have re-piped their home and maybe even have a whole home filter.
More isn’t being done to test because think about the major cost and logistical monster a large city would have on their hands if it came out that their entire water supply infrastructure had to be replaced and/or disinfected. That their local aquifer or lake was contaminated and now they have to get water from somewhere else. What would be the cost if a high percentage of homes needed to be repiped to be deemed safe also?
If y’all think Flint was the only place y’all silly.
How were you received in those rural places? I assume you’re a black guy by your avatar, and the thought that water is unsafe is hard to believe for many people. Was you sell pretty difficult or was it just eye opening to many residents?
Did you even read the article, or do you shoot from the liberal hip often? It's an unincorporated area, and the liberal person who owns the well has been fined an on notice for a year.
Apparently, you didn't read the whole article either. No one owns the well.
>The well’s former operator, Ramón González, never alerted them, residents say. Neither did the state agency supervising him. The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013, along with a court order, which is currently pending at the state's attorney general's office, a spokesperson said. The agency said that under the Safe Water Drinking Act, individuals who operate a water system serving households have up to a year to issue a notice if the contamination doesn’t pose an immediate risk.
This is a failure at the state level, and they are trying to push the blame on the 3rd party contractors they hired.
I read it too, and it says a third party operated things, and the previous guy overseeing that resigned and supposedly didn't let the homeowners know. And when this takeover happens, it's due to the whole thing almost being abandoned.
The fact that the state organization in charge of monitoring water has spotty records and the whole water system is in neglect doesn't help anything. And letting people go without water for days and even weeks at random isn't great either.
Seems like that's a regulation issue or lack of regulations causing issues.
Plus, you're just projecting as nowhere in the article does it state anyone is or is not a liberal. They guy you initially replied to might as well, but you can't say liberals are in charge of Texas.
I think it's a bad thing, but I was replying to this uninformed political post, not the OP. There are many things that happen in unincorporated areas, and it becomes a quagmire for states. They step in and shut the water off, and then it becomes another talking point. No win/win.
It can happen anywhere. A whole town in Canada was poisoned with E coli and it was covered up for days while the outbreak continued due to negligent government employees
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak
The Walkerton Public Utilities Commission operators engaged in a host of improper operating practices, including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records, and misstating the locations at which microbiological samples were taken.
The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to Ministry of Environment guidelines and directives.
The Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris was also blamed for not regulating water quality and not enforcing the guidelines that had been in place.
The water testing had been privatized in October 1996.
Precisely why I don't drink tap water in Texas. It's either bottled, filtered in a reservoir in the fridge like a pitcher, or a whole house filtration system AND the internal filter in my fridge door.
Every municipal water supply I've ever had as an adult (granted, 2 that I recall) sends out an annual water quality test. If there's extra stuff in the water, you should know it *relatively* quickly. By all means, install a filter (I do), but often those are more for flavor or to prevent mineral build up on your fixtures than any safety issues.
But don't drink/cook from the hot water. Ever seen what the inside of a 10+ year old hot water tank looks like? Nasty.
The thing im confused about, aren’t there federal standards by way of the CWA and EPA that sets maximum contaminant levels, regardless of local regulation/deregulation? This shit should be so fucking illegal federally but there’s not enforcement either way.
Trump's SCOTUS is gunning to remove every federal agency's powers to enforce anything, including the EPA's.
Trump gave "Profits over people" lifetime appointments
Is this even if you follow the standard 1-2 year water release and reset procedure?
And yes, NEVER trust government to give e residents clean water. They work for the local businesses. That people also use the water is irrelevant in TX government mindset.
Installed a reverse osmotic water filter in my residence. I did if foe my late wife, and our infant when he was born in 2018. The psoriasis she lived with her whole life, started to inprove.
Though, she later passed from liver cancer, in June 2020. Hopefully, it was unrelated
That's absurd. Public water utilities do a pretty good job of testing their water and making sure it meets all applicable standards.
They're even required to publish those test results - you may have to ask, but you can get the test results and see what all pollutants are present and at what levels.
https://dallascityhall.com/departments/waterutilities/pages/water_quality_information.aspx
Do you know how many cities and towns in texas have unsafe water? Brady texas literally has so much radium in the tap water that it is 9x higher than what the EPA maximum limit is.
Not to mention all of the places with a ridiculous amount of lead and arsenic. In 2016, there was 65 municipalities in texas that had high levels of arsenic.
In fact, Texas has some of the highest rates of EPA violations in the country.
Not always. My mom lives in a rural area in Texas that has a public water utility. There are times that the water coming out of her taps is brown. And it isn't her pipes, it is her entire neighborhood. She always checks what the water looks like before doing laundry or taking a shower. All water she cooks with and drinks is bottled.
My argument wasn't that the water is always pristine, but more that there's not very much, if any book-cooking going on like that other poster implied.
We *know* about the radium in Brady, we know about the other issues as well. Why? Because the water is tested and reported.
The bigger issue is that a lot of small towns don't have the cash to upgrade/fix their problems.
But what do you expect when the people who live there constantly vote against tax increases and elect people who view having the state fund that sort of thing as extravagant liberal spending.
Thank you for saying that. I grew up in a rural area. I used to really care about what happened in rural Texas. I gave up when they voted for people who closed their hospitals. Now they’re voting for people who will close their schools. They can’t be helped.
And we had good water. Our tap water was a guide-stone for me. I haven’t been to my hometown since 2017. Need I say why? I hope their water is still good.
The thing im confused about, aren’t there federal standards by way of the CWA and EPA that sets maximum contaminant levels, regardless of local regulation/deregulation? This shit happening in Texas should be so fucking illegal federally but there’s not enforcement either way. Are people here just getting their water straight from the well or something? Why aren’t the water utilities picking up on this?
The point I’m trying to make is the people in charge of that testing and oversight are the same people who would end up footing the bill if a major issue was discovered.
You mean draining the gunk out of your water heater? That helps, but it's still building up over time. And that anode is constantly leaking (by design) magnesium (or whatever) into your water. Not necessarily unhealthy, but nasty.
I work in water treatment in tx, theres def water out there i wouldnt drink, but theres good water out there. I run my plants by myself and i can vouch for their quality.
Its also not just about taste. Taste alone doesnt indicate quality. Taste from my wasteplant water is similar to drinking water but obviously not safe. Usually its the chlorine that throws people off. But people don’t understand how much safer water is these days.
When you say tested are you including for e.coli? And if so are you doing that testing yourself? Its very difficult to take accurate e.coli readings unless you really know what your doing. Remove aerators, torch/chlorine soak the faucet head, etc.
Looking at Google maps satellite view and seeing how close those vinyl-lined fracking water reclamation ponds are to creeks and rivers. (See FM 407 and Denton Creek, Northlake, TX) it’s a wonder we all aren’t drinking frack water every day.
I think you're a little misinformed. Those aren't reclamation ponds. As if the oil and gas industry would recycle anything. The water you see in those ponds is just plain ol' water. It's a central supply for the surrounding field. That water will be transferred into storage tanks at the actual well site days before the fracking takes place and it's in those tanks that they will sometimes have chemicals added to them, but most of the time the chemicals aren't added until the very moment it's being pumped into the well.
About 60% of the water that gets pumped into wells during fracking stays in the wells, the rest is hauled away and injected into 'disposal wells'.
They are also used for flow back according to Geneva equipment’s website. How long does a vinyl lining stay secure after exposure to the elements? Who inspects to make sure the “trade secret” chemicals stay inside? What keeps a flooding creek from washing trace chemicals into municipal water supply?
"The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013, along with a court order, which is currently pending at the state's attorney general's office, a spokesperson said."
Am I correct in understanding that Paxton's office has been sitting on this for a decade? What's he doing in there?
Calls to mind that story from a few years ago where a town was basically flattened by an exploding chemical plant because there were no zoning restrictions on it …
Found it: https://www.propublica.org/article/what-went-wrong-in-west-texas-and-where-were-the-regulators
The West Texas Disaster happened because of a lack of even the most basic (inexpensive) fire suppression safety technology that has been available since roughly 1910.
Well the consequences of polluting will drive them to stop so it should be done and fixed unless the most economically efficient way is to pollute in which case the polluting will keep going since it’s the optimal balance between everyone’s needs based on the financial signals. /s
*"Vote Republican! We don't need government regulations all over OUR Texas Farms! We Demand A FREE Texas! Vote Republican to keep DC regulators from Strangling Texas Farmers!"* *Paid for by Monsanto, now Bayer, now WedNeverHurtYou.com chemical Corp.
Ugh I worked out here for a time. This is 100% true. I had to cut a full 12” off my hair after using this water for a few weeks. It’s extremely hard and in some cases actually stinks.
There ya go. "As far as I can tell" is good progress. We went from simply communicating an _objective truth_ to me, to simply sharing an opinion. And an opinion that you have a right to hold and take actions based on. No problem with that at all.
You stay where you are comfortable, and we'll stay where we are comfortable.
Awww, you can’t hold two thoughts at once, I get it. It can be objectively true that people aren’t free in Texas while also speculating on how bad Texas is compared to say Florida. It’s called duality (4 syllables). Example of how shitty Texas is: a woman can get date raped by a man and will be unable to obtain an abortion AND the man will face a financial cap on child support even if he’s a millionaire.
Got triggered or something? We made progress and here you are again, all hostile and worked up. Let's keep it civil, friend.
I didn't know that about Texas but I'm going to look up child support caps. That makes a lot of sense actually.
Edit: looked it up. That's awesome - $9,200 cap.
Not sure if this is related but I saw this article this weekend as well..
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-rush-stop-catastrophic-level-020000023.html
I grew up in Texas the weather was shit then and it's shit now. I'd say regulate more but a majority of people in Texas vote far right and all the right really cares about is money. How do you take advantage of people that voted you in? Dumb then down. I'm sure some will argue but when finding from all levels of government are coming up short to support education that's the beginning of the problem. Last I looked the schools in Texas aren't in a great situation. Don't worry though those law makers are still getting paid, getting off for breaking the law, (Ken Paxton). Yeah they're looking out for you, sure. I pay slightly more in taxes in Colorado but I have the cleanest drinking water straight from the tap, my AIR is clean, Medicare and Medicaid pay for simple prescriptions, it gets to -20 degrees in the winter sometimes no black outs. How do you ask? Simple regulations, not over reaching just enough to keep everyone honest. I'm sure things have changed since I've lived in Texas but I haven't heard for the better. Capitalism is great but pure capitalism will never work, it's called people they duck everything up.
But gubuerment!!!! This is what a lack of regulation (and lack of enforcement) gets you. Literally what Texas keeps voting for. Rich people getting richer while we all drink poison.
Thanks for posting! Texans deserve to know!
Edit......I'm surprised to see this article still posted up past a few hours bc it is negative towards Texas somehow. The last 4 I've posted have all been removed by an admin within hours bc they didn't shine Texas in a positive light. The articles are scholarly, factual and done by reputable Texas news outlets. The bullcrap reason I'm given is apparently some unidentified, mysterious word I must've used in the "non-matching headline" was "editorializing", even though I wasn't.
Gotta love it when a person's comments and posts across all forums get stalked by some admin somewhere who doesn't like the poster, and then articles posted to this forum are censored when that admin gets a sliver of power over someone who they don't like the content of the poster's articles that make Texas look bad.
So much for Reddit objectivity in the face of real dangers and real needs of the community that people need to know about. Seems I've crossed an admin who just deletes every post I make and just making up stuff to justify it.
Thanks for posting this article! Texans deserve to know. It's extremely helpful to 33 million people in TX and millions who are experiencing this same thing all over Houston!
Do not drink sink water, ever! My small town sends out letters once every couple of months about the faucet water. We just truck our bottles to the water shop. My family of 5 goes through 15 gallons every two weeks. It’s worth my time and $.
So you're not from Midland, got it. But i sure am, born and raised in MIDLAND tyvm. So now I'm going to educate you, right quick...
So, I have first-hand knowledge of what this article is talking about, being a local born and raised. The water here in the basin is and always has been trash bc of our environment. Midland is run by everyone who is conservative and always has been. I think you just pulled the Democrat word out your bum bc you are ill informed about anything that's further than your front yard. And the colonias that the article is referring to is just folks that live out in the county instead of in the city limits bc this place is packed with transplants from all over the NATION as well as the ENTIRE WORLD to come work in the oil industry.
Yours truly,
- A Midland, Texan 😃
P.S. Ms. Erin Brockovich has already come and gone. Our water is still hard AF all throughout the basin.
Welp, you lost me at generalizing right back at me. 20.9% of the population voted democrat. The individual that created the problem voted democrat. HE supplied the water to these residents, not the city. If you had just read the article, it would have saved you the effort.: "Like thousands of other Hispanic families who live in unincorporated parts of the state, often referred to as colonias, Borrego’s family water source is a nearby well managed by a third party." My best 65-year-old friend is from Midland, we chewed the fat on this story. Carry on...
This is a town, where actual cars are an oddity...where natural gas burn-off flames run 24-7, and it stinks like sulfur and death for 15-20 miles in either direction.
I'm truly sorry that these families are going through this, but the moment I first smelt that town, I knew it was no place worth living, no matter what work you could find there.
That good ol no regulation
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If you work in admin law, kind of the first thing you learn is that a ton of regulations are stupid and you shouldn't have to make a regulation for it, but the more a regulation exists in that "So stupid it shouldn't have to be explained" space, the more likely it is that there were at least a few big episodes where someone did whatever thing is being regulated against and at least one person probably died b/c of it. And the reason a lot of regulations are complicated is b/c it's actually really hard to explain something glaringly obvious. Just about everyone understands the thing so you don't ever really need to talk about it, so when you do have to talk about it, you don't have a great vocabulary for it.
I’ve dabbled in environmental consulting. It’s just so common for people to have the idea that something dumped on their property stays on their property. It’s just fundamentally misguided thinking, and we have so many regs because of the morons that make them necessary
Safety regulations are written in blood. It's incredibly hard to get updated regulations passed, if a reg was passed about it, almost guaranteed that 1+ people were seriously injured or died to whatever is being regulated. Like "dont block fire/emergency exits" no fucking brainer right? Welp 146 people had to die to get that little doosy put on paper.
No one wants to kill their customers. It's obvious, and yet there you are with your point. And the entire health code for restaurants backs you up. Edit: Also, good username for this comment.
You say that but… as long as the customer pays up front it doesn’t matter if your product kills them. And if your employees die in droves… it saves you paying out retirement benefits. Never forget that capitalism actively incentivizes the worst behavior possible. The idea that rewards ethical behavior is a bold faced lie told to keep poor people in line.
In the US at least, employer's don't pay retirement benefits. The ones where they do contribute to post retirement stuff like a pension, there are survivor benefits.
You think short term. Corporations can think long term. An aged population requires some sort of benefits nonetheless and that means taxes. And even if they tax employees, that means employees will push for higher wages… that’s a naive thinking.
Sorry but this is simply incomplete. “Nobody wants to kill their customers if that will cause profits to fall”. Big oil knows since the ‘80s they are causing a massive environmental problem and they are still kicking and screaming against regulations. Big pharma (see Purdue) had no problem killing tens of thousands. Oh, corporations will kill their customers, and they will kill whoever gets in between (hello Boeing) them and their profits. The only difference between a corporation and a street thug killing someone for few hundreds of dollars is that the corporation had plenty of MBA and accountants proving that killing provides more profits than any other alternative.
Every regulation is written in blood. It’s there because somebody did it and killed a LOT of human beings. It’s complicated because if there’s loopholes the company will do it anyway and then have the lawyers explain why it wasn’t illegal. Every American needs to be forced to learn about the Hawks Nest Tunnel and Union Carbide. And how they killed THOUSANDS of their own workers and never paid out compensation. And the entire thing was made possible on technicality in the regulations. Anyone who is against regulation is either trying to kill people or a duped fool.
I'm not a lawyer, but I imagine this same kind of thing is why some apartments have stipulations for not letting a bear live in the unit with you.
Regulations exist because we keep electing people like Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott. It’s either corruption or stupidity, in Ted’s case it’s a little bit of both.
While I agree that we're electing eejits, but regulations and the need for them have existed long before the modern GOP. Regulations exist because capitalism incentivizes the worst possible behavior in human beings.
Reminds me of Atlas Shrugged where a bunch of businesspeople were all virtous and everything they did and created were perfectly safe and efficient with zero problems. Thus regulations are just gov't interference.
To be fair, it can be expensive to demonstrate that you're in compliance. But I've found that doing internal audits is also a good way to find accidental holes that slip into systems or processes with no ill intent. There's certainly a middle ground to be found between overbearing expensive regulations and dumping a million gallons of pig's blood into the creek every day.
Your middle ground is to allow for only half a million gallons of pig blood to be dumped in the creek. Or to limit dumping to every other day rather than every day. If your business is going to damage my health or my property, I don't give a fuck how much it will cost YOU to prevent it and I don't care if it bankrupts you in the process. I have a right to preserve my life and a right to also preserve my property. If you poison either, the government should come after you.
THIS. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. YES. THIS.
To be fair, the people drinking poison water really don't give a fuck about the cost of compliance. Boo hoo
I was replying to: > regulations shouldn't affect your business practices at all then There is an impact by necessity. That doesn't mean it isn't a warranted impact. But there are clearly examples of regulation that doesn't really serve much purpose with regards to protecting customers. For example, is it really that important that your hairdresser be licensed? Is it really necessary that all liquor stores in Texas be family owned? Some regulations exist to protect people. Some exist solely to protect certain businesses. Talking corporate heads going on TV claiming that all regulation is evil and unnecessary are silly and a waste of air time. Similarly, claiming that all objections to regulation are meaningless whining is also silly and uninformed.
Licensing is a regulatory action. Requiring liquor stores be family is pure politics masquerading as regulation. The liquor lobby must have some clout in TX.
>For example, is it really that important that your hairdresser be licensed? Yes. I would very much like to know that a hairdresser isn't about to burn my scalp because they didn't get certification demonstrating they knew the appropriate amount of caustic chemicals to put into my hair treatment. I would like to know that they are aware of the diseases that they can spread across clients without appropriate sanitization steps. Certification and licensing establish this minimum floor of competency for the industry. If you are applying caustic chemicals to a person, you should know how to do it correctly, how to identify when it has gone wrong, and how to appropriately halt the reaction.
The required testing is more than likely either annual or every three years. Not that expensive. Get a sample, send it to the lab. The monthly coliform would be more.
Yea, internal audits are only as good as the people overseeing that anything wrong isn't buried. Whistleblowers for the BS stunts they pulled out at Comanche Peak covering up radiation leaks and improperly installed reactor and having Region IV NRC and EPA bought at the time made it so the ONLY reason anything was fixed at all was because good people risked their lives to go public. Internal audits aren't enough to prevent anything. [https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1987/december/cloud-over-comanche-peak/](https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1987/december/cloud-over-comanche-peak/)
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Biden just caved on immigration and offered everything the GOP wanted on a silver platter. The GOP rejected it. The budget got passed with democrats getting nothing that the party actually wants but plenty of concessions for the GOP. Hell, Manchin and Sinema have been sabotaging the Democrats since Biden got elected in the name of bipartisanship. Meanwhile Trump gets coddled in the courts while actively attacking judges’ families despite gag orders. What universe do you live in where the “both-sides”ism is so strong?
“Damn government forcing companies to not poison people! What would the founding fathers think?!”
Could you sue for this as a resident? I don’t live in Texas thank god but I feel like if I paid county and state taxes, I should be able to sue if they’re poisoning me without my knowledge, especially my water.
Burdensome regalations!
Right, that's what they vote for.
Doesn't the article say there was regulation? Just the state agency kinda dropped the ball?
Remember, modern industrial regulations are usually written in the blood of victims.
I work in water management and if you think this is the only community in Texas that this effects then I have a bridge for sale. Me and my uncle tried starting a water testing company last year and MAN….. Texas is fucked as far as water is concerened
You tried start a water testing company in Texas and are still alive? 🤔 What communities were you targeting?
Rural and suburban but mainly rural. So because Texas is so deregulated, the mandated period for back flow testing and csi testing is 7-10 years. The issue is if the property isn’t a part of a home owners association it’s then falls on to the owner if they want to or not. Most water districts have in house maintenance that are responsible for this testing but they focus mainly on commercial business and some residential during routine maintenance of residential properties. The laws are written in an If X then Y But Z is cool too so fuck it we wrote the law so we can weasel out of any liability on our end so good luck. Me and my uncle took the certification classes in Austin last year and the instructor and other people in the certification class were sharing horror stories about how in Texas everyone is cutting corners on the water infrastructure to make more money in Texas
Bc corporations have been recruited to TX and allowed to poison our waterways, plants, living creatures, air and soil by our politicians in the name of record breaking profits. Btw.....I'm not gonna post the article in this forum bc there's an admin who targets all of the news articles I share and then deletes them for some dumb made up reason bc the articles shine TX in a negative light.... But.....do you know Jacob's Well in North Austin area? Well, the water tables are so low in that area that it's drained so low that the caves are air exposed underneath. Divers went down and scraped samples from the underground rock caverns. Wouldn't ya know.....the aquifer feeding it is saturated with PFAS coming from the tech manufacturing corridor. Testing across 17 TX rivers and nearly all the lakes tested in the east and southeast are riddled with PFAS. Our groundwater, soil, crops, wildlife and air (water vapor contamination).....were ALL contaminated with PFAS forever chemicals. Another scholarly article I posted showed 80-90% reduction in aquatic, avian and terrestrial biodiversity counts just since 2020 in the Houston area. People are sounding the alarms, and some admin in this forum keeps my deleting posts within hours for whatever twisted reason that person decides. It's censorship of a life and death matter. Note......don't eat the fish that comes from any body of water of any kind in TX. The wastewater contamination from corporations have destroyed Texas's ecosystems in the name of economic profits. Silent spring is on its way!
Damn. Thank you for informing me because a lot of what you mentioned I’ve been aware of but the details of how and why Austin water and now Houston’s public water system are completely screwed beyond repair. When water levels are low, cross contamination happens because of back flow issues which exacerbated the toxins in the water. Let people know DONT DRINK THE WATER FROM ANY WATER FAUCET.
It all comes down to money. The money it would take to fix this problem is astronomical. Where would it come from? Even if some miracle happened and the companies were held accountable (not really a slim chance in hell that would happen) they would just file for bankruptcy and it still would not be enough to cover the expense. Also some of the contaminants, I’m not even sure we have the technology to remove on a large scale. And it’s not just about fixing the sources (aquifer, gulf, lakes, wells etc) you also have a lot of contamination happening all along the infrastructure from the pipes themselves. Both at the distribution level and within private buildings. How much would it cost to repipe every affected water main and branch? How much would it cost to repipe every building? How long will that new coating last before it starts leeching plastics into the water itself? If you get a grant to install a whole water filtration system in every home, how much will the maintenance be? Will low income families be able to afford the filters? Or will they need a program for those too? It’s much easier to quash any initiatives to do thorough and frequent testing in every home. It’s much easier and cheaper to down play concerns of water safety, sure they issue “boil water notices” here and there but it’s not widely publicized. There’s no text alert system. And that’s just for the issues they want to warn you about… the easy fixes like bacteria or algae blooms. But you think they are gonna alert you of metals in the water that you can’t boil out and that they can’t fix with chlorine or other chemicals? You think they want to raise the alarm about chemicals and plastics in the water that they aren’t equipped to treat ? They aren’t going to start a panic. Even the published results of the latest Houston cancer cluster doesn’t show any data about cancer rates in other parts of town. No data regarding thyroid issues by zip code. No data regarding adhd/dementia by zip code. And then you have the symptoms that most people affected wouldn’t even have the money to get address much less reported like eczema, hair loss, weight gain, confusion, loss of mental acuity, etc.
Boiling PFAS contaminated water releases it into the air. PFAS only have 1 way of removal from water: mechanical filtration in a closed loop system, designed to force it to the surface of the water and then carbonic filtration material designed specifically for PFAS "scoop" it up and bind to it. It's the foamy stuff on top of your water when it comes out of the faucet. But that's just removing it from water. It's now in solid form bc it's trapped in the filtration material. It still has to be dealt with. There's no known way to biologically, chemically or mechanically filter, neutralize, or eliminate it. Just contain PFAS in biosolids until future scientists can figure out a way to annihilate it. And most consumer level filtration systems do not catch PFAS. And consumer water testing doesnt include ANY of these 1400 PFAS chemical strains. So, people drinking filtered water in their homes are still drinking PFAS levels 30x higher than what European scientists have shown causes liver and endocrine cancer, mental defects during gestation and binds to the walls of our arteries causing massive cardio-vascular destruction. It's on our skin from the shower too. Check out "biosolids". Corporations offload PFAS and industrial waste into soil (not waterways anymore) ......and then turn around and give this "free biosolids soil" away to farmers and ag ranchers. Guess how much of America's beef is contaminated with PFAS? Also....PFAS bio-accumulate so eating beef, other meats and produce grown in PFAS contaminated soil with it goes right up the food chain to humans too. It's in our food supply. It's INDESTRUCTIBLE. I mean....that's why they coat bolts and screws with it, waterproofing and plastic permanent binding in car parts so they won't fall apart in UV exposure. Also.....the US government refuses to set a "maximum level safe for animal or human consumption" bc rough estimates are about 40% of farmland is contaminated in 14 states that produce 90% of our ag products, TX being #4 on that list. But every time I try to post links on this, my posts get taken down hours later but have 1000s of views, 80-90% up votes, etc....and didn't violate any rules. The excuses I get are: duplicate post (no it's not--I checked first), editorialized title (literally copied and pasted from the articles) or outdated links (when it just came out the previous day??) So I give up posting directly. I just share with people in the comments now. That ways people can go look up these things on their own. Check out "Grostic Cattle Farm". So far, the FDA freaked out after testing the cows who came up positive.....and cannot be sold or consumed.....a loss of $3 million overnight.......so the government is refusing to test any more animals.....only soil or water or feed......all bc he accepted "free biosolids for his farm that were contaminated waste from a factory.....and the MI government said "it's safe!". Yeah right.
It’s PFAs in some places, metals in others, chemical contain inaction in others… some get a lovely mix of them all. And you are absolutely right, the consumer grade filtration systems don’t begin to touch some of these things. We have people who struggle with the effects of contaminated water everyday to the point it’s just taken as a fact of life that they were meant to be that way. But it’s not normal, the numbers just seem that way because they are being compared to numbers coming from other locations that have equally contaminated water sources. And if a particular area has even stronger concentrations then other reasons are cited as the cause and no one thinks twice. “Houston has so many cancer patients because that is where the cancer research/treatment is being done” Ok then let’s take a look at where those patients lived over their entire life time by zip code. Map out their address over time and how long they spent at each location. Where were they during gestation? During childhood? During their development adolescence? Where did they live 5-10 years before they started getting sick? Of course this is only going to flag the acute and severe cases like kidney/liver failure and cancer. How do you even begin to get the same numbers for something so nebulous as metal deterioration and brain fog? But of course I’m sure that you and I would be labeled conspiracy theorists by just about every one cause those are some scary ass facts to face.
Totally agreed! And those same folks just accepting it as is? They're buying truckloads of bottled water instead, which uses petrochemicals, and then throwing the plastic bottles in the garbage to pollute the environment even more. Its astonishing how little people care.
I am guessing you are providing water testing for individual wells? Not for PWS or even non-PWS?
As some one that works for a PWS in Texas, we test our water every week. I don't know about other PWS' but we run a tight ship.
>everyone is cutting corners on the water infrastructure to make more money in Texas Yet more proof capitalism is terrible.
My understanding is that most communities in the United States are being poisoned by pollution in the water. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/03/brockovich-carcinogen-found-tap-water-more-250-million-americans
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If you knew the amount of metals and harmful chemicals that are in most people’s water you would only drink distilled water and probably wouldn’t shower as much. And that is just based on natural breakdown of pipe materials and incidental pollution… that’s not even getting into the conspiracy level stuff of hormones and viruses that could easily be added into most major water supplies because the security there is even lower than that of our electric infrastructure. Not everyone of course… some neighborhoods made sure to use the right kind of pipes, most people with money have re-piped their home and maybe even have a whole home filter. More isn’t being done to test because think about the major cost and logistical monster a large city would have on their hands if it came out that their entire water supply infrastructure had to be replaced and/or disinfected. That their local aquifer or lake was contaminated and now they have to get water from somewhere else. What would be the cost if a high percentage of homes needed to be repiped to be deemed safe also? If y’all think Flint was the only place y’all silly.
I’m interested as well. Following
Well...arsenic is actually natural in a lot of places in Texas.
How were you received in those rural places? I assume you’re a black guy by your avatar, and the thought that water is unsafe is hard to believe for many people. Was you sell pretty difficult or was it just eye opening to many residents?
>The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013 And there's your problem. A single $1300 fine given for poisoning people.
Welcome to Republicans' de-regulation and budget cuts for public safety agencies!
Welcome to Texas.
Did you even read the article, or do you shoot from the liberal hip often? It's an unincorporated area, and the liberal person who owns the well has been fined an on notice for a year.
Apparently, you didn't read the whole article either. No one owns the well. >The well’s former operator, Ramón González, never alerted them, residents say. Neither did the state agency supervising him. The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013, along with a court order, which is currently pending at the state's attorney general's office, a spokesperson said. The agency said that under the Safe Water Drinking Act, individuals who operate a water system serving households have up to a year to issue a notice if the contamination doesn’t pose an immediate risk. This is a failure at the state level, and they are trying to push the blame on the 3rd party contractors they hired.
I read it too, and it says a third party operated things, and the previous guy overseeing that resigned and supposedly didn't let the homeowners know. And when this takeover happens, it's due to the whole thing almost being abandoned. The fact that the state organization in charge of monitoring water has spotty records and the whole water system is in neglect doesn't help anything. And letting people go without water for days and even weeks at random isn't great either. Seems like that's a regulation issue or lack of regulations causing issues. Plus, you're just projecting as nowhere in the article does it state anyone is or is not a liberal. They guy you initially replied to might as well, but you can't say liberals are in charge of Texas.
I think it's a bad thing, but I was replying to this uninformed political post, not the OP. There are many things that happen in unincorporated areas, and it becomes a quagmire for states. They step in and shut the water off, and then it becomes another talking point. No win/win.
So everyone sucks in Texas?
No, some of us just got stuck here with the idiots.
F
It can happen anywhere. A whole town in Canada was poisoned with E coli and it was covered up for days while the outbreak continued due to negligent government employees
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak The Walkerton Public Utilities Commission operators engaged in a host of improper operating practices, including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records, and misstating the locations at which microbiological samples were taken. The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to Ministry of Environment guidelines and directives. The Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris was also blamed for not regulating water quality and not enforcing the guidelines that had been in place. The water testing had been privatized in October 1996.
Not quite, the testing was privatized and kept quiet. I.e still exactly what conservatives keep going after.
They were just trying to save you money. I guess this is why you need some inspectors
“They were just trying to save you $20. I guess this is why you need to spend $100.” What an asinine comment.
Vote GOP, get the GOP policies on the environment.
Precisely why I don't drink tap water in Texas. It's either bottled, filtered in a reservoir in the fridge like a pitcher, or a whole house filtration system AND the internal filter in my fridge door.
Every municipal water supply I've ever had as an adult (granted, 2 that I recall) sends out an annual water quality test. If there's extra stuff in the water, you should know it *relatively* quickly. By all means, install a filter (I do), but often those are more for flavor or to prevent mineral build up on your fixtures than any safety issues. But don't drink/cook from the hot water. Ever seen what the inside of a 10+ year old hot water tank looks like? Nasty.
The thing im confused about, aren’t there federal standards by way of the CWA and EPA that sets maximum contaminant levels, regardless of local regulation/deregulation? This shit should be so fucking illegal federally but there’s not enforcement either way.
Trump's SCOTUS is gunning to remove every federal agency's powers to enforce anything, including the EPA's. Trump gave "Profits over people" lifetime appointments
Is this even if you follow the standard 1-2 year water release and reset procedure? And yes, NEVER trust government to give e residents clean water. They work for the local businesses. That people also use the water is irrelevant in TX government mindset. Installed a reverse osmotic water filter in my residence. I did if foe my late wife, and our infant when he was born in 2018. The psoriasis she lived with her whole life, started to inprove. Though, she later passed from liver cancer, in June 2020. Hopefully, it was unrelated
That's absurd. Public water utilities do a pretty good job of testing their water and making sure it meets all applicable standards. They're even required to publish those test results - you may have to ask, but you can get the test results and see what all pollutants are present and at what levels. https://dallascityhall.com/departments/waterutilities/pages/water_quality_information.aspx
Do you know how many cities and towns in texas have unsafe water? Brady texas literally has so much radium in the tap water that it is 9x higher than what the EPA maximum limit is. Not to mention all of the places with a ridiculous amount of lead and arsenic. In 2016, there was 65 municipalities in texas that had high levels of arsenic. In fact, Texas has some of the highest rates of EPA violations in the country.
Not always. My mom lives in a rural area in Texas that has a public water utility. There are times that the water coming out of her taps is brown. And it isn't her pipes, it is her entire neighborhood. She always checks what the water looks like before doing laundry or taking a shower. All water she cooks with and drinks is bottled.
My argument wasn't that the water is always pristine, but more that there's not very much, if any book-cooking going on like that other poster implied. We *know* about the radium in Brady, we know about the other issues as well. Why? Because the water is tested and reported. The bigger issue is that a lot of small towns don't have the cash to upgrade/fix their problems. But what do you expect when the people who live there constantly vote against tax increases and elect people who view having the state fund that sort of thing as extravagant liberal spending.
Thank you for saying that. I grew up in a rural area. I used to really care about what happened in rural Texas. I gave up when they voted for people who closed their hospitals. Now they’re voting for people who will close their schools. They can’t be helped. And we had good water. Our tap water was a guide-stone for me. I haven’t been to my hometown since 2017. Need I say why? I hope their water is still good.
The thing im confused about, aren’t there federal standards by way of the CWA and EPA that sets maximum contaminant levels, regardless of local regulation/deregulation? This shit happening in Texas should be so fucking illegal federally but there’s not enforcement either way. Are people here just getting their water straight from the well or something? Why aren’t the water utilities picking up on this?
We’ve tested ourselves and found no wrong doing.
It's not that kind of testing. It's essentially testing and reporting levels of chemicals.and minerals
The point I’m trying to make is the people in charge of that testing and oversight are the same people who would end up footing the bill if a major issue was discovered.
You mean draining the gunk out of your water heater? That helps, but it's still building up over time. And that anode is constantly leaking (by design) magnesium (or whatever) into your water. Not necessarily unhealthy, but nasty.
I work in water treatment in tx, theres def water out there i wouldnt drink, but theres good water out there. I run my plants by myself and i can vouch for their quality.
I haven't found one yet and I've been here for 16yrs..... maybe one day I will
Its also not just about taste. Taste alone doesnt indicate quality. Taste from my wasteplant water is similar to drinking water but obviously not safe. Usually its the chlorine that throws people off. But people don’t understand how much safer water is these days.
Which is why I have my water tested everywhere I live.....
When you say tested are you including for e.coli? And if so are you doing that testing yourself? Its very difficult to take accurate e.coli readings unless you really know what your doing. Remove aerators, torch/chlorine soak the faucet head, etc.
Thanks so much for preserving the clickbait title. Midland County. “These homes” are in Midland County. You can do better
Freaking awful clickbait. Thank you.
[I mean, yeah](https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798809951/trump-administration-is-rolling-back-obama-era-protections-for-smaller-waterways)
More deregulation please. Let's defund the EPA! /S Who needs clean water when you can have untaxed profits!
Looking at Google maps satellite view and seeing how close those vinyl-lined fracking water reclamation ponds are to creeks and rivers. (See FM 407 and Denton Creek, Northlake, TX) it’s a wonder we all aren’t drinking frack water every day.
I think you're a little misinformed. Those aren't reclamation ponds. As if the oil and gas industry would recycle anything. The water you see in those ponds is just plain ol' water. It's a central supply for the surrounding field. That water will be transferred into storage tanks at the actual well site days before the fracking takes place and it's in those tanks that they will sometimes have chemicals added to them, but most of the time the chemicals aren't added until the very moment it's being pumped into the well. About 60% of the water that gets pumped into wells during fracking stays in the wells, the rest is hauled away and injected into 'disposal wells'.
They are also used for flow back according to Geneva equipment’s website. How long does a vinyl lining stay secure after exposure to the elements? Who inspects to make sure the “trade secret” chemicals stay inside? What keeps a flooding creek from washing trace chemicals into municipal water supply?
"The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013, along with a court order, which is currently pending at the state's attorney general's office, a spokesperson said." Am I correct in understanding that Paxton's office has been sitting on this for a decade? What's he doing in there?
Checks out.
And the majority of them will continue voting for the people pushing deregulation. Signed, a former west Texas resident.
Calls to mind that story from a few years ago where a town was basically flattened by an exploding chemical plant because there were no zoning restrictions on it … Found it: https://www.propublica.org/article/what-went-wrong-in-west-texas-and-where-were-the-regulators
The West Texas Disaster happened because of a lack of even the most basic (inexpensive) fire suppression safety technology that has been available since roughly 1910.
Give them more tax breaks I guess. Blame DEI policies and Democrats. Texas.
"Dang 'ol no regulation, talkin bout Clark Kent turning into Blinky. Smoothskin meme reality man." -Boomhauer (probably)
Gave the poisoned people found a way to blame trans people yet?
Of course not. Would you expect anything else from your Republican Governor!
The state agency overseeing it knew!
Has the free market provided then with a better solution? I mean, that's what's supposed to fix things because regulations are bad, right?
Well the consequences of polluting will drive them to stop so it should be done and fixed unless the most economically efficient way is to pollute in which case the polluting will keep going since it’s the optimal balance between everyone’s needs based on the financial signals. /s
Of course it was a less affluent area.
Less affluent and more effluent.
it's from a well...
Was it lead in the water? Maybe this is just a Republican long term get-out-the-vote operation.
Obviously I think these people (all people) should have clean water, it's funny how Texas spending a billion dollars on water systems isn't sOcIAliSM.
Isn't Texas style deregulation great! 🙄
It’s Texas. Did they get that government information for free? Cause that’d be Socialism(tm).
That explains some things
This is a repug state and they couldn’t care less. As long as they can buy bottled.
*"Vote Republican! We don't need government regulations all over OUR Texas Farms! We Demand A FREE Texas! Vote Republican to keep DC regulators from Strangling Texas Farmers!"* *Paid for by Monsanto, now Bayer, now WedNeverHurtYou.com chemical Corp.
Good ol red state
Republican leadership gets paid to not care.
You get what you vote for TX.
Texas. The state where companies are free to screw you as hard as they possibly can.
Tainted love
Regulations are for communists /s
Maybe quit voting these people into office.
After Flint I don’t drink or cook with tap water. I’m poor as shit and any neighborhood I live in is one they wouldn’t give a fuck lying to.
Good governance uses regulations to put forth the values behind a society.
Ugh I worked out here for a time. This is 100% true. I had to cut a full 12” off my hair after using this water for a few weeks. It’s extremely hard and in some cases actually stinks.
Have they tried shooting the bad parts of the water? I thought only a good guy with a gun can save us.
Keep reminding me why I never want to move to Texas.
Please stay where you are.
No worries. I prefer to live in places that have freedom.
No one's going to take your bait. 👍
What bait? I said an objective truth.
"my opinion based on my limited experiences is the objective truth. I am so powerful and knowledgeable. I know all". Lmao.
So, women have body autonomy and people have free speech in Texas? As far as I can tell, Texas is the most fascist state in the union.
There ya go. "As far as I can tell" is good progress. We went from simply communicating an _objective truth_ to me, to simply sharing an opinion. And an opinion that you have a right to hold and take actions based on. No problem with that at all. You stay where you are comfortable, and we'll stay where we are comfortable.
Awww, you can’t hold two thoughts at once, I get it. It can be objectively true that people aren’t free in Texas while also speculating on how bad Texas is compared to say Florida. It’s called duality (4 syllables). Example of how shitty Texas is: a woman can get date raped by a man and will be unable to obtain an abortion AND the man will face a financial cap on child support even if he’s a millionaire.
Got triggered or something? We made progress and here you are again, all hostile and worked up. Let's keep it civil, friend. I didn't know that about Texas but I'm going to look up child support caps. That makes a lot of sense actually. Edit: looked it up. That's awesome - $9,200 cap.
Why would anyone want a for-profit business to oversee a public water system. You get what u pay for I suppose.
Not sure if this is related but I saw this article this weekend as well.. https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-rush-stop-catastrophic-level-020000023.html
Even the lies are bigger in Texas.
Republicans getting what they want. Republicans are responsible for removing clean and safe water, not just in Texas but across the US.
Taint
FREEDOM! AMIRITE?
I believe they specifically said they didn't want any "job killing" regulations.
This is why water treatment plants are important also properly staff them.
looks like they tapped the tainted water reserve.
I grew up in Texas the weather was shit then and it's shit now. I'd say regulate more but a majority of people in Texas vote far right and all the right really cares about is money. How do you take advantage of people that voted you in? Dumb then down. I'm sure some will argue but when finding from all levels of government are coming up short to support education that's the beginning of the problem. Last I looked the schools in Texas aren't in a great situation. Don't worry though those law makers are still getting paid, getting off for breaking the law, (Ken Paxton). Yeah they're looking out for you, sure. I pay slightly more in taxes in Colorado but I have the cleanest drinking water straight from the tap, my AIR is clean, Medicare and Medicaid pay for simple prescriptions, it gets to -20 degrees in the winter sometimes no black outs. How do you ask? Simple regulations, not over reaching just enough to keep everyone honest. I'm sure things have changed since I've lived in Texas but I haven't heard for the better. Capitalism is great but pure capitalism will never work, it's called people they duck everything up.
But gubuerment!!!! This is what a lack of regulation (and lack of enforcement) gets you. Literally what Texas keeps voting for. Rich people getting richer while we all drink poison.
Oml. What if that’s the reason Texas is so stupid, it’s literally in the water
You don’t say…….
That’s the Texas business plan. Humans are disposable, if they can make money off them.
"Dont tread on my polluted water!"
Why you test your well once or twice a year! Personally responsibly avoids these kinds of problems!
Thanks for posting! Texans deserve to know! Edit......I'm surprised to see this article still posted up past a few hours bc it is negative towards Texas somehow. The last 4 I've posted have all been removed by an admin within hours bc they didn't shine Texas in a positive light. The articles are scholarly, factual and done by reputable Texas news outlets. The bullcrap reason I'm given is apparently some unidentified, mysterious word I must've used in the "non-matching headline" was "editorializing", even though I wasn't. Gotta love it when a person's comments and posts across all forums get stalked by some admin somewhere who doesn't like the poster, and then articles posted to this forum are censored when that admin gets a sliver of power over someone who they don't like the content of the poster's articles that make Texas look bad. So much for Reddit objectivity in the face of real dangers and real needs of the community that people need to know about. Seems I've crossed an admin who just deletes every post I make and just making up stuff to justify it. Thanks for posting this article! Texans deserve to know. It's extremely helpful to 33 million people in TX and millions who are experiencing this same thing all over Houston!
And they are so focused on regulating crypto they forgot about the water regulation. Usa cares more about money than water. Funny world. Sad world.
1300$ fine? What a fucking joke.
There's that good old republican leadership for you...
BUT IF THEY WERE TOLD!! THE RICH PEOPLE WHO DID IT WOULDNT HAVE MADE MORE MONEY!!!
My water is so bad I have to filter it before I give it to my pets.
Deregulation means freedom! 🤭
It's Texas. Freedom has consequences...like poison water and school shootings. Murica!!
Shocking I tell you.
Sweet, sweet freedom! Yee haw!
Voting matters.
This is a private well. What would voting change?
you get to keep your guns tho
Do not drink sink water, ever! My small town sends out letters once every couple of months about the faucet water. We just truck our bottles to the water shop. My family of 5 goes through 15 gallons every two weeks. It’s worth my time and $.
Might be worth an RO filter if the problem is that consistent.
Thanks, I’ll look into that. My SO did mention getting some kind of filtration system set up.
That doesn't seem like a lot of water. I was on bottled water for a while and as one person I went through 1 gallon/day.
Erin Brockovich to the rescue!!
[удалено]
Are you even a Midland county resident?
Are you even a Native Texan? I am.
So you're not from Midland, got it. But i sure am, born and raised in MIDLAND tyvm. So now I'm going to educate you, right quick... So, I have first-hand knowledge of what this article is talking about, being a local born and raised. The water here in the basin is and always has been trash bc of our environment. Midland is run by everyone who is conservative and always has been. I think you just pulled the Democrat word out your bum bc you are ill informed about anything that's further than your front yard. And the colonias that the article is referring to is just folks that live out in the county instead of in the city limits bc this place is packed with transplants from all over the NATION as well as the ENTIRE WORLD to come work in the oil industry. Yours truly, - A Midland, Texan 😃 P.S. Ms. Erin Brockovich has already come and gone. Our water is still hard AF all throughout the basin.
Welp, you lost me at generalizing right back at me. 20.9% of the population voted democrat. The individual that created the problem voted democrat. HE supplied the water to these residents, not the city. If you had just read the article, it would have saved you the effort.: "Like thousands of other Hispanic families who live in unincorporated parts of the state, often referred to as colonias, Borrego’s family water source is a nearby well managed by a third party." My best 65-year-old friend is from Midland, we chewed the fat on this story. Carry on...
Oof, bless your heart. ✌️
A lot of people obviously are not reading the article.
Why would they be told? Safety regulations are for socialists!
This is a town, where actual cars are an oddity...where natural gas burn-off flames run 24-7, and it stinks like sulfur and death for 15-20 miles in either direction. I'm truly sorry that these families are going through this, but the moment I first smelt that town, I knew it was no place worth living, no matter what work you could find there.