Drink up boys and girls

This week the Wisconsin State Assembly Natural Resources Committee blocked a proposed rule that would regulate a cancer causing chemical that is starting to pop up in too many wells in Wisconsin. The chemical, alachlor-ESA, is a byproduct of the herbicide alachlor manufactured by Monsanto. They blocked it despite the fact that the cancer causing byproduct has been found in 43 percent of the wells tested in the southern two-thirds of Wisconsin.

When asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the vote, Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), chair of the committee, said the committee had a good comfort level that we are all safe.

Just what is the comfort level when we are talking about cancer anyway?

Is Gunderson saying we have to find the three-headed frogs before we take action?

Combine that with the story told in this blog post about the Senate and Assembly Agriculture Committees voting to protect a few large agribusiness operations instead of groundwater and you've got some serious problems ahead for water quality in our state. Especially if these representatives remain in charge and continue to ignore things like an entire family getting sick from water contaminated with manure.

The representatives that voted this way in the Assembly Agriculture Committee were just outraged that the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation (WWF) was putting children in their press release to illustrate the problem. Some of the committee members put out a press release criticizing the WWF for emotionalizing the issue.

Because politicians NEVER, EVER use children to draw attention to themselves.

Seriously, when was the last time you received a piece of campaign literature without a child on it from a politician?

And of course it's not sickening that these representatives are pushing all the family farmers that don't even do what this rule would address out in front so they can say they are protecting farmers, not agribusiness.

So drink up boys and girls. The water is fine according to the folks who run these committees. Or better yet, let's say we set up a little test a la Erin Brockovich and line up glasses of water for the committee members to drink but not tell them which ones have manure in them, which ones have the cancer causing byproduct in them and which ones are clean. There would be only one glass with clean water and they'd have to drink them all.

Think they'd drink them?