Got Water?

If you do, you must not live in California or West Virginia.     The water supplies of two different states are seriously threatened this year.  

In West Virginia, we have two recent devolopments.   One is that the Governor has declared that he is not a scientist and has no opinion about whether his state's water supply is safe.   The second is that the EPA has just revealed that a second major contaminant was in the spill.  They are calling it "PPH, stripped," whatever that means.  It apparently is a skin and eye irritant.  So it may not be safe to wash or bathe with some of WV's water, let alone to drink it.    The latter link correctly wonders why it has taken the EPA 12 days to release this information, and why did "Freedom industries" not release this information?

In California, the state is facing possibly the worst wildfire season and drought in its history.   See here for more details.    

The especially worrying thing about both of these developments is that each seem to be part of trend.    Decreasing precipitation in California is predicted by most climate models, and the recent explosion of enhanced energy exploration in North America does not bode well for the quality of the water we do have.