So, I’m reading my local newspaper today (10/26/19) and an article blew my mind. It was written by one of the Asbury Park Press’s reporters, Amanda Oglesby, who can be reached at [email protected]. The article depicted the horror of the NJ water supply. At the end of the article I will list the website to go to to find out about YOUR water supply.
“Millions of NJ residents are drinking tap water contaminated with carcinogens and other dangerous chemicals, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group.
At the same time, much of this contamination is permitted under federal rules meant to safeguard drinking water.
But, is it safe?
“Most Americans assume the federal government ensures that their tap water is safe to drink” as said by EPA Group President Ken Cook in a news release about the report. “Our Tap Water Database shines a light on an ugly reality: The Safe Water Drinking Water Act is totally f**ked up (My words. He was more polite), and the water millions of Americans drink is contaminated with unhealthy pollutants like PEAS, pesticides, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and more.”
Spokespeople for two government agencies, without directly commenting on the EWG report, said that federal and state regulations are often reviewed and aim to preserve public health. “Protecting America’s drinking water is a top priority for the EPA”, said Molly Block an EPA spokeswoman.
More than 7.5 million NJ residents are drinking water from systems that are contaminated with dangerous chemicals and metals, according to the EWG’s report.
The report found that:
*More than 7.5 million NJ residents drank water from systems that had reported contamination with hexavalent chromium, a naturally occurring metallic element that can damage skin, eyes and cause lung problems on cancer when inhaled.
*More than 5 million NJ residents were drinking from water systems that had tested positive for chloroform in drinking water supplies. Chloroform is a byproduct of chemical companies, paper mills and can be produced in small amounts by chlorinating water, according to the CDC (Centers for Deceit, Control and Procrastination – my words again.) Large amounts can damage the central nervous system, liver and kidneys, according to the CDC.
*More than 3.2 million people were served by water supplies that had been contaminated with arsenic, which can cause cancer and skin lesions in cases of long-term exposure, according to the WHO (World Homicidal Organization- my words again.)
The EWG found other chemicals in certain water supply systems across the state as well. The organization argued that federal water quality regulations are too lax and are endangering human health as a result.
“Clean water free of toxic chemicals like hexavalent chromium and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, cancer-linked and hormone disrupting chemicals) should be a right afforded to every American,” nationally renowned public health advocate Erin Brockovich said in a news release. “Sadly, that is not the case. Widespread pollution threatens the integrity of drinking water, though often below the legal limit, may not be safe to drink.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. EPA (Environmental Pollution Agency – guilty) defended existing federal water regulations.
“More than 90 chemicals are regulated in drinking water by the federal agency, and those regulations have become stricter over time,” said Block, the agency’s spokeswoman.
“Over 92 percent of the national population supplied by community water systems receives drinking water that meets all health-based standards all of the time. EPA is working aggressively with our state partners to push that number higher,” she said. (Riiiiiiiight!)
The agency has decontamination goals “at which no known or anticipated adverse effect on the health of persons would occur,” she said.
The goals “consider only public health and in some cases it is not feasible to measure or treat contaminants in drinking water to these levels,” she said.
“The feasibility of reducing a particular contaminant to the goal level, as well as costs and benefits, are taken into account when formulating the regulations,” Block said.
The federal government established drinking quality standards in 1974 that empower the EPA as well as state agencies to take legal action, issue orders against or fine utilities that do not comply with the drinking water regulations.
In addition, NJ has established its own, more stringent drinking water standards on 14 contaminants. The state also set limits on seven chemicals not included in the federal requirements.
In 2018, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, over saw water quality in 3,636 drinking water utilities and systems and found contaminating chemicals over the state’s limits in just 124 of them, according to its 2018 compliance report.
Yet, the debate between the environmental group, which argues for stricter federal standards, and the state and federal environmental agencies follows in the wake of the two recent water quality controversies in NJ.
Officials in Newark are working to remove potentially dangerous levels of lead from the city’s drinking water supply.
In addition, as a USA TODAY NETWORK – NJ investigation that found some 250,000 NJ students are at risk of drinking lead-contaminated water in their schools.
The EWG report included details about each water utility in NJ, their contaminants as well as compliance with federal drinking water standards, according to the report.
*Lakewood Township MUA (Municipal Utilities Authority) had eight chemical contaminants discovered in its water since 2012, including hexavalent chromium and PFOA.
*Joint Base McGuire-DIX-Lakehurst’s main water system had eight chemical contaminants that exceeded the environmental group’s health guidelines. Chloroform levels were 52 times higher than the EWG’s health guideline. The chemical group trihalomethanes, connected to cancer and birth defects, were 166 times the organization’s health guidelines.
*NJ American Water’s Mount Holly system had 21 contaminants discovered, dating back to 2012. Seven of those chemicals exceeded the environmental group’s standards. The utility had radium, a cancer-causing chemical, at 39 times the groups recommended guideline.
*Willingboro MUA had 34 contaminants discovered since 2012, and 10 of those chemicals exceeded the environmental group’s standards. The utility had radium, a cancer=causing chemical, at 39 times the group’s recommended guideline.
“Our database is a powerful tool for people to use to use to protect themselves and their families,” said Cook, of EWG. “but, Americans must also stand up for safety standards and safeguards to keep contaminants out of drinking water in the first place.””
To review the EWG’s report on water quality in your town, visit www.ewg.org/tapwater.
Also, I would advise everyone who has read this to print it out and send to President Trump. Since he always emphasizes how he is always “for the people”, how could he ignore this nightmare thrust upon by the corporations that only care about how much profit they can make?
Sources:
Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.
After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.
Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.
I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.
So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".
Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.
I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.
But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.
The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.
But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.
So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.
Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.
I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.
Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.
A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.
In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.
My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.
I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.
Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.
The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.
Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.
For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.
Namaste!
