I Love Clean Drinking Water!

When Cory Mason took part of a legislation debate the other day, he was surprised at the topic: clean drinking water.

"I told my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that I was amazed we were debating about whether or not to have clean drinking water for Wisconsin residents," he said.

In a nutshell, Assembly Bill 23 stops the state Department of Natural Resources from requiring municipalities to continuously disinfect their drinking water.

I could hear the "WTF" in Mason's voice (just my impression) over the phone when he said he couldn't understand why, instead of repealing the requirement, the legislature didn't offer solutions.

"We put forth a series of amendments to address individual things like retroviruses and disclosures when there is a health risk," he added. "Every single one of them was defeated."

In a written statement released shortly after the bill passed, Mason noted that Bill 23 was passed near what would mark the 18th anniversary of the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee that made 400,000 people sick.

"Look, the DNR put forth these clean water measures because people were getting sick," Mason stressed. "And a study by Dr. Mark Borchardt of the University of Wisconsin proves that treating people after they get sick from unclean drinking water costs four times more than preventing the illnesses in the first place."

He said he is stunned that his Republican colleagues are putting public health at risk by repealing the state drinking water standards. And though he said he isn't so much worried about his constituents in the eastern part of Racine County because the City of Racine does a great job in keeping our water clean, he is worried about residents in other, more rural parts of the state. Click here for our columnist's view on the vote.

I, too, am stunned. No clean drinking water requirements when we've seen how dangerous contaminated water can be? If the DNR's requirement was, indeed, proving too expensive for communities, then it would make sense to table the issue so solutions can be discussed instead of chucking the whole thing.

But I think what galls me the most is that the legislature turned down even the amendments that would alert citizens to a health risk.

W.T.F.