SpringWaterStation.com blog

Farm Bureau Working to Stop Expansion of Clean Water Act.

I’m sure that’s the right thing to do for farmers, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do for the environment.

The Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 would expand the authority of the EPA and the Corp of Army Engineers beyond navigable waters and add also authority over ground waters.

This gives it the power to regulate activities that add pollutants from run off, pollutants from landfills and sewage lagoons run off from pesticides, and chemical fertilizers.  And our pesticide formulations available today are between 10 and 100 times more potent than those sold in 1975. Roughly 85-90% of pesticides used for agriculture never reach target organisms, but instead spread through the air, soil, and water.

One third of the wells tested in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1988 contained the pesticide DBCP at levels 10 times higher than the maximum allowed for safe drinking water-more than a decade after its use was banned.  Ninety-five percent of all fresh water on earth is ground water. The average length of time groundwater remains in an aquifer is 1,400 years, as opposed to 16 days for river water. This suggest clean up a long term project ie prevention is a better solution, Estimates suggest that nearly 1.5 billion people lack safe drinking water

Clearly, the problems associated with water pollution have the capabilities to disrupt life on a planet-wide basis.  Global environmental collapse is possible. We cannot ignore groundwater pollution no matter the economic consequences to agriculture. As a farmer I believe a workable solution must be found sooner rather than to late.