Letters: Drinking water safety must be priority; ‘Shameful’ vote from Thompson

Drinking water safety must be priority

Happy Valley needs a cohesive, regional water resource management agreement to protect and conserve the safety and reliability of our community drinking water.

Residential and public drinking water supplies in Benner Township are contaminated with PFAS substances and/or nitrate chemicals. Investigations by EPA, USGS, PADEP, and others have documented these problems in Benner Township.

Scores of homes in Benner Township are under permanent do not drink your water advisories or may soon be under advisories not to drink their water due to toxic levels of chemical contamination.

Over 30 residential water supplies adjacent to State College airport contain levels of PFAS exceeding EPA safety guidelines. A public water well serving a community in Benner Township contains nitrate levels near the maximum allowable level of 10 ppm.

The Benner Township PFAS Investigation GTAC7-4-106 Walnut Grove Estates Development Waterline Feasibility Study recommends the extension of the State College Borough Water Authority’s public water system in Benner Township to provide potable water to families with unsafe water supplies.

PFAS is known to have negative health effects including cancer. Too much nitrate in drinking water can cause blue baby syndrome in infants and health complications to adults.

Local water authorities, municipal governments, and responsible parties should work together and cooperate to solve these imminent public health problems in an effective and timely manner.

There is a great reluctance by local water authorities with the capacity to resolve these problems, despite the availability of grant money to pay for PFAS remediation.

‘Shameful’ vote from Thompson

In the Nov. 20 edition of the CDT, we learn: “The House has passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies

Appropriations Act (H.R.5894), to block funding of research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into injuries and fatalities caused by firearms. The vote, on Nov. 15, was 216 yeas to 211 nays.

YEAS: Thompson.”

This vote by GT Thompson is utterly shameful. With gun violence and deaths such an immense nationwide public health issue, how could it possibly be a bad thing to learn more about this complex and multi-factorial issue? Taking an ostrich-like “head-in-the-sand” approach is preposterous beyond belief. We would not take this stance with other public health issues such as heart disease, cancer, infectious diseases and other very important matters. We should not and cannot take this stance with injuries and fatalities caused by firearms.

Again, this action by the House of Representatives and this vote are utterly shameful.