President Donald Trump’s latest effort to reshape US environmental regulations appears to involve toilets.
During a small business event at the White House Friday, Trump announced he has ordered a federal review of water efficiency standards pertaining to bathroom fixtures.
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once. They end up using more water,” Trump said, complaining that water flow in other fixtures has slowed to a trickle. “You can’t wash your hands practically, there’s so little water comes out of the faucet, and the end result is you leave the faucet on and it takes you much longer to wash your hands, you end up using the same amount of water.”
Although Trump said during the event that the “EPA is looking at [water flow] very strongly, at my suggestion,” this review is actually mandated under 2018 legislation that directs the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate water regulations adopted before 2012.
These include the agency’s WaterSense program, which was first launched in 2006 in order to reduce the water use of fixtures like toilets. The requirement that toilets use a set amount of water began on the federal level in 1992, according to the Associated Press, when President George H.W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act, a law mandating any toilets installed in homes after 1994 use 1.6 gallons of water or less per flush.
A stunning new map shows the complex network of rivers and streams in the contiguous United States.
Created by Imgur user Fejetlenfej, a geographer and GIS analyst with a ‘lifelong passion for beautiful maps,’ it highlights the massive expanse of river basins across the country – in particular, those which feed the Mississippi River.
The map visualizes Strahler Stream Order Classification, the creator explains, with higher stream orders indicated as thicker lines.
But water problems here and elsewhere go beyond the decline of coal.
"We are dealing with systems that are old," says Colette Easter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The group has found that America's drinking water infrastructure needs a $105 billion investment in repairs, including more than $8 billion in Kentucky.
And Easter says declining population can compound the challenges facing all rural systems, as fixed costs are spread among fewer ratepayers.
"The only way you can fix infrastructure without affecting rates is if someone gives you the money," says Andrew Melnykovych, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Public Service Commission. But federal and state grants for repairs are harder to come by. "Absent some dramatic change at both the state and the federal level, that grant money is just not out there in the kind of quantity needed to address water infrastructure needs," he says.
Clean water is expensive, and the cost of upgrading water supplies and waste water infrastructure can be difficult especially for those on a fixed budget.
A Senate committee unanimously approved legislation June 19 that would force the EPA to set new standards for a prevalent nonstick chemical in drinking water. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved an amendment to a broader defense bill (S. 1790) that would force the Environmental Protection Agency to set a safety threshold for chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
This seems like a good idea, especially with so many concerns about contamination locally.
I try to drink more water now, as it's certainly much healthier then beer, 🍺 and even milk. 🐄 Plus it's a lot cheaper and can make you less hungry. As water is inexpensive, and healthy, a renewable resource, I say it's better to drink more then less.