This month, "For Openers" discusses the latest fuss regarding water contamination.
Last month, the Washington Post front-paged a story about lead levels in water being misrepresented by utilities. There was much bluster about “cities across the country manipulating the results of tests … violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk ….” The sky-is-falling camp's position was summed up by former EPA drinking water honcho Jim Elder who claims, “It's time to consider whether water utilities can be trusted. I fear for the safety of our nation's drinking water …. Apparently, it's a crapshoot as to what's going to come out of the tap ….” (I have to hope that his agonizingly bad pun was unintended.)
And what was the public's reaction to this imminent, all-devastating cataclysm we face? While the doom-and-gloomers were tacking together protest signs and mapping out demonstration march routes for the masses, all you could hear were crickets and the occasional tumbleweed skitter by.