Nearly a month after the Environmental Working Group issued a disturbing report on the quality of America’s drinking water, the DWP got around to defending itself publicly against being ranked 83rd among the 100 largest cities.
Leading the charge was DWP Commissioner Jonathan Parfrey, long-time director of the Green LA Coalition and a particpant with the Environmental Working Group in previous activities.
Parfrey’s remarks, toeing the DWP party line, unequivocally repudiate the report and defend the quality of LA’s water — a betrayal of the environmental cause without engaging the actual issue.
The issue that the environmentalists raised was that there are hundreds of toxic chemicals in America’s water supply — 30 in LA’s — that show up in utility tests and many others that aren’t tested for or have unknown toxic levels.
On “average,” the DWP and other utilities meet federal standards but the study showed that sometimes toxic levels are exceeded and that the standards themselves are inadequate to protect the public health.
Parfrey and DWP officials don’t engage those issues, choosing instead to repeat one after another that all health standards are met — on average — so you shouldn’t be concerned about the safety of the water.
Eighteen months ago, I raised the same issue in pointing out that then DWP General Manager David Nahai said this in his annual report to customers: “Last year, all 200 billion gallons of water supplied to the 4 million residents of Los Angeles met or surpassed all health-based drinking water standards.”
That is a false statement. all 200 billion gallons of water did not meet or surpass all standards. DWP tests show that there are times when some contaminants that are hazardous to health show up in amounts that exceed standards.
So why would a supposedly committed environmentalist like Parfrey and DWP officials whitewash the truth?