To the Editor:
Remember the commercial "tastes great, less filling?" Oberlin water is the opposite. It tastes awful and is filled with toxic chemicals.
Do you know where your water comes from? The Black River, the third most toxic river in Ohio. Industries reported dumping more than 1,000,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the river from 1990-1994.
Do you want to know more? We would, too. Corporate America makes and uses more than 72,000 synthetic chemicals each year, but is only required to report the production and dumping of 600 of them.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires industry to report releases of 600 chemicals, but has the authority to do much more. We need to know the levels and effects of toxic chemicals in the environment to protect our health. With increased vigilance from the EPA, citizens will know more about the river from which they draw water to drink, bathe, and swim.
The Ohio Public Interest Research Group (OhioPIRG) is pressuring the EPA to increase the number of industries and chemicals covered by the right to know laws. We urge Representative Sherrod Brown to co-sponsor legislation which would expand the public's right to know about toxics in our water.
What can you do? Call or write Representative Sherrod Brown or Carol Browner, the head of the EPA. Toxic chemicals affect all of us, so get your voice heard and get involved!
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 4; September 27, 1996
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