Address threat to our water supply

There has been a firestorm of publicity in the past week or so regarding the impact on drinking water supplies here in Illinois and in communities around the country.

It is nice to see that this issue has finally come to the forefront.

I'm not sure I applaud the Daily Herald for its reporting on this issue as of late, or if they are simply going along with the crowd. However, my opinion is not nearly as important as the fact that we are finally discussing the options for correcting this serious environmental and health problem.

A nationwide U.S. Geological Survey was completed in March of 2002 that tested 139 water streams in 39 states across the country. The results of that testing showed that over 80 percent of the streams tested positive for one or more organic wastewater contaminants.

Some of the progressive states like Minnesota and California didn't wait six years to take action. The main source of the contamination does come from the thousands of pharmaceutical chemicals that are flushed down the drain. Some of the material is being flushed deliberately, in an effort to dispose of the chemicals in what we all thought for years was a safe method of disposal.

The IEPA is working to help residents of Illinois do the right thing by offering to collect and properly dispose of these chemicals. What's strange is that the federal EPA has not taken a more proactive approach to regulate the many pharmaceuticals at the source.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 enables the EPA to regulate and enforce compliance of hazardous waste. The problem is, there really hasn't been any update to this law since its inception to help regulate this pharmaceutical issue. The average hospital has over 4,000 pharmaceutical chemicals in its inventory and less than 5 percent of those chemicals are regulated by RCRA. There are literally hundreds of dangerous chemicals that are used as pharmaceuticals every day in this country.

It is imperative that the federal and state governments take a more aggressive role to make sure unused pharmaceuticals are managed properly at all levels of our society -- residential, commercial, local, state and federal.

John Gray

Carol Stream