Statement from ECUA Executive Director, Stephen E. Sorrell
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Subject: Pensacola has worst drinking water in America
This issue arose about a year ago (December 12, 2009) from a report issued by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), at which time I thought the information we supplied adequately demonstrated that the issue was groundless. First, let me reiterate that I know our water is outstanding, meeting or exceeding every standard demanded by the federal and state regulatory agencies. In fact, EWG?s report clearly states the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued no violations to the ECUA during the five-year period in question.
The following is a brief recap of the information relative to this matter, but we can provide much more detailed information if needed.
EWG is a special interest environmental advocacy group, which has an extremely checkered track record. Their goal was (is) to force the Federal EPA to adopt stricter water quality standards. This is a noble goal, but the methodology and scare tactics they are using are unacceptable.
Most of the water in the Pensacola area is supplied by the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority and meets or exceeds every single federal and state water quality standard, without exception. Actually, we were our own worst enemy by conducting approximately 75,000 water quality tests in a five year period. The ECUA has 32 wells in its ground-water system, and each well site is considered a water treatment facility. This amount of testing was completely ignored in the EWG report. To make a long story short, we hired the scientists at the University of West Florida (UWF) to analyze our water quality test reports and evaluate the EWG report. They provided a written, unbiased report stating the EWG findings are bogus and they did not use scientific methodology to reach their conclusions.
To add some additional strength to my argument because I don?t think you will believe me otherwise, our local League of Women Voters held a water quality forum in February 2010, whose panel of experts included Mr. Richard Wiles, one of EWG?s directors. Dr. Richard Snyder, the UWF scientist on the same panel, stated he would give EWG an ?F? for their report and affirmed it was poorly done without scientific merit. Mr. Wiles then admitted in the public meeting to the poor quality of their work, and said ?when you don?t have any money and want to make a point, this is the only method to get public attention.? He apologized to the people at the meeting and said his intentions were honorable.
Furthermore, ECUA discovered that the EWG group gets funding through a percentage returned to them from water filter sales driven from links on their website. These are strategically located alongside the report on water quality. This is part of their funding mechanism for their efforts. The more they scare people, the more home water filters are sold, and then the more kickback money they receive to fund their programs. We have learned that they recently also employed the same strategy to drive sales to organic produce (and away from traditionally-grown produce), benefiting those growers and marketers.
The ECUA supports clean water standards and finds the EWG cause a noble one, but their methods, lack of scientific analyses, the harm they are causing water purveyors throughout the country and most importantly, the anxiety and fear they are causing individuals, is tragic. Their freedom of speech has essentially protected them from legal action.
Stephen E. Sorrell, PE
Executive Director, ECUA
