The State of our “Drinking Water”

Recently, you may have noticed a sticker on many of the water fountains around the University of Central Florida campus with the stark warning: “Contains Violation Levels of Radium, Cadmium & other Carcinogenic Toxins…Yours, Deep Green Resistance Orlando.”

The object in reference is the water. According to the Environmental Working Group (a registered non-profit group famed for their rigorous investigations and research in the service of public health) and statistics gathered from The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the water at UCF is contaminated with “over the health guideline” levels of several toxic chemicals. You can read the full list here: http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/FL/University-of-Central-Florida/3480409/.  You will notice that the graph shows the presence of contaminants has been measured over a number of years and that while chemical levels have often been over the health guidelines, there have only been a handful of times these contaminant levels have surpassed legal guidelines.   We ask, how can contaminant levels in our “drinking water” violate health limits while still being legal?

Our stickers may alert many to the imminent dangers of toxic water, but our hope is to draw attention to a larger and more important danger: the fundamental antagonism between the continuation of our current society and the prospect of having access to clean water. We are not advocating for a more rigorous purification process.  Rather, we are advocating that our water not be polluted in the first place. The tragedy is that in our industrial culture the introduction of toxic chemicals into our drinking water is justified as a necessary, if unfortunate consequence of our destructive way of life.  We do not accept this, and we do not accept an industrial culture that creates poisons for which there is no antidote. The State and Corporations have not only monopolized the means of production, but also the means to life.