“Millo in the city of David”: 2 Chronicles 32:5.
p. 103
the dark, winding 533-meter path: Amos Frumkin and Aryeh Shimron, “Tunnel Engineering in the Iron Age: Geoarchaeology of the Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem,” Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006), 227–28.
p. 103
“I imposed my yoke”: Dougherty, “Sennacherib and the Walled Cities of Judah,” 162.
p. 104
leasing official mugs: London: The Greatest City; “The Great Conduit,” Florilegium Urbanum, http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/community/cmfabr24.html; Roger D. Hansen, “Water-Related Infrastructure in Medieval London,” WaterHistory.org, http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/london/london.pdf.
p. 104
contracted with their local monasteries: “The Great Conduit.”
p. 104
“a glass of water fit to drink”: As quoted in Peter Gleick, Bottled and Sold (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010), 4.
p. 104
a philanthropic society: Howard Malchow, “Free Water: The Public Drinking Fountain Movement and Victorian London,” London Journal 4 (1978), 181, 184–188.
p. 105
a venture dedicated to the common good: “The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association,” DrinkingFountains.org, http://www.drinkingfountains.org/Attachments%28PDF%29/DFA%20HIstory.pdf.
p. 106
commemoration of the drinking fountain: Lithograph from Illustrated London News, Apr. 30, 1859.
p. 107
the grandeur of the civic edifice: The photograph can be found at Wikimedia, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worcester_Cross_drinking_fountain,_Kidderminster_-_DSCF0918.jpg.
p. 108
about one pipe break a day: Charles Duhigg, “Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly,” New York Times, Mar. 14, 2010.
p. 109
thirty-six million gallons per day: Ken Belson, “Plumber’s Job on a Giant’s Scale: Fixing New York’s Drinking Straw,” New York Times, Nov. 22, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/nyregion/23tunnel.html.
p. 109
the lead soldering used to join: “What’s on Tap,” National Resources Defense Council, June 2003, http://www.nrdc.org//water/drinking/uscities/contents.asp.
p. 109
breaks in water and sewer lines: Glennon, Unquenchable, 211.
p. 109
we need $335 billion: Duhigg, “Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems,” New York Times, Mar. 14, 2010.
p. 110
waterborne parasites, viruses: Ibid.
p. 110
about nine hundred deaths: Glennon, Unquenchable, 66.
p. 110
This history is based on the research of the architectural historian, Giorgio Gionighian. Giorgio Gionighian, Building a Renaissance Double House in Venice, 8 ARQ 299 (nos. 3/4, 2004). See also Giorigio Gianighian, L’Acqua di Venezia: Dal medioevo all’acquedotto e oltre, Ananke 134 (2010).
p. 112
Illustrazioni di G. Del Pedros © tratte da Venezia come di G. Gianighian e P. Pavanini, Ambier & Keller editors, Venezia 2010. Reproduced with publisher’s permission.
4: Death in Small Doses
p. 113
analysis of his hair suggests arsenic: “Napoleon poison theory revived,” CNN World, June 1, 2001, http://articles.cnn.com/2001-06-01/world/napoleon.poisoning_1_pascal-kintz-ben-weider-hair-samples?_s=PM:WORLD.
p. 114
to remedy this public health problem: Allan H. Smith et al., “Contamination of Drinking-Water by Arsenic in Bangladesh: a Public Health Emergency,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78 (2000), 1093; A. Mushtaque and R. Chowdhury, “Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh,” Scientific American (Aug. 2004), 86, 90.
p. 114
“more than 10 million tubewells”: Ibid.
p. 115
concentrations below 50 parts: This history is recounted in Cass R. Sunstein, “The Arithmetic of Arsenic,” Georgetown Law Journal 90 (2002), 2255.
p. 115
one drop of arsenic in fifty drums: Charles Duhigg, “That Tap Water is Legal but may be Unhealthy,” New York Times, Dec. 17, 2009.
p. 115
“but you didn’t vote for this”: As quoted in Sunstein, “The Arithmetic of Arsenic,” 2255.
p. 117
“the groundwater can kill you”: Email from Alex Pfaff, Professor, Sanford Institute for Public Policy, Duke University, to author (Sept. 26, 2007).
p. 117
the harm from microbial diseases: Ibid. Moreover, many of the traditional ponds used as water sources have since been polluted or converted into aquaculture.
p. 117
“arsenic-contaminated tube-well water”: Ben Crow and Farhana Sultana, “Gender, Class, and Access to Water: Three Cases in a Poor and Crowded Delta,” Society and Natural Resources 15 (2002), 709, 718.
p. 117
“Tubewells had fitted nicely”: Mushtaque and Chowdhury, “Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh,” 90.
p. 118
ten versus fifty seconds: Zane Satterfield, “What Does Ppm or Ppb Mean?,” National Environmental Services Center at West Virginia University, http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/ot/fa04/q&a.pdf.
p. 118
additional capacity in the water treatment plant: Jason K. Burnett and Robert W. Hahn, “A Costly Benefit,” Regulation (Fall 2001), 44.
p. 118
estimates ranging from six lives saved: Sunstein, “The Arithmetic of Arsenic,” 2258. “Today, the maximum contaminant level for arsenic is ten parts per billion, and more than fifty-six million Americans drink water that exceeds this level.” Royte, Bottlemania, 121.
p. 119
“range below 50 parts per billion”: Sunstein, “The Arithmetic of Arsenic,” 2258.
p. 119
bladder, colon, and rectal cancer: John D. Graham and Jonathan Baert Wiener, “Confronting Risk Tradeoffs,” in Risk Versus Risk: Tradeoffs in Protecting Health and the Environment, eds. John D. Graham and Jonathan Baert Wiener (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 15; Morris, The Blue Death, 168–177.
p. 119
younger versus older victims: Susan W. Putnam and Jonathan Baert Wiener, “Seeking Safe Drinking Water,” in Ibid. 124–125.
p. 119
Interfere with the endocrine system: “Endocrine Disruptors/PPCPs,” American Water Works Association, http://www.awwa.org//Resources/topicspecific.cfm?ItemNumber=3647&navItemNumber=1580; “New Findings on the Timing of Sexual Maturity,” Our Stolen Future, http://www.ourstolenfuture.org//NewScience/reproduction/Puberty/puberty.htm.
p. 120
behavior of certain wildlife: “IPCS Global Assessment of EDCs,” World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/en/ch1.pdf.
p. 120
impact on human populations: J. H. Kim, “Removal of Endocrine Disruptors Using Homogeneous Metal Catalyst Combined with Nanofiltration Membrane,” Water Science and Technology 51 (2005), 381.
p. 120
other persistent organic pollutants: Jerome Nriagu, “Pollutants and Health of Communities in the Great Lakes Basin,” http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/downloads/research/papers/GLCOMM.pdf.
p. 120
ten times higher than the level: “Endocrine Disruptors,” Birth Defect Research for Children, http://www.birthdefects.org//research/factsheets/fact%20EDCs.pdf.
p. 121
widely used for controlling mosquitoes: Heidi J. Auman et al, “PCBS, DDE, DDT, and TCDD-EQ in Two Species of Island, Midway Atoll, North Pacific Ocean,” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 16 (1997), 498.
p. 121
so-called intersex fish: “Intersex Fish Found in Susquehanna River, Delmarva Lakes,” Chesapeake Bay Program, Nov. 17, 2010, http://www.chesapeakebay.net/news_intersexfish10.aspx?menuitem=54704.
p. 121
Florida’s Lake Apopka: “Endocrine Disruptors on the Gulf Coast,” Regional Perspectives in Environmental Science, http://www.mhhe.com/b
iosci/pae/environmentalscience/ca sestudies/case7.mhtml.
p. 121
pharmaceuticals and personal care products: See, e.g., Julie Gerberding, “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in Drinking Water,” DrinkTap.org, http://www.drinktap.org//consumerdnn/Home/WaterInformation/WaterQuality/PharmaceuticalsPPCPs/tabid/73/Default.aspx; Abby C. Collier, “Pharmaceutical Contaminants in Pota Water: Potential Concerns for Pregnant Women and Children,” EcoHealth 4 (2007), 164, 170.
p. 121
80 percent of the streams: Jennifer Waters, “Water shortages,” CQ Researcher 20 (June 18, 2010), 529.
p. 121
study of private wells: Glennon, Unquenchable, 71.
p. 121
fifty-six pharmaceuticals or their by-products: Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza, and Justin Pritchard, “Pharmaceuticals lurking in U.S. drinking water,” MSNBC.com., Mar. 10, 2008.
p. 122
steroids and antibiotics near cattle feedlots: “Antibiotics Used for Growth in Food Animals Making their Way into Waterways,” Science Daily, Oct. 25, 2004.
p. 122
New York, Houston, Chicago: Donn, Mendoza, and Pritchard, “Pharmaceuticals lurking in U.S. drinking water.”
p. 122
“exposed to other people’s drugs”: Ibid.
p. 122
“might pose a risk to water safety”: “Meeting report: pharmaceuticals in water,” Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2010, 1016.
p. 122
pharmaceutical traces in drinking water: Jennifer Waters, “Water Shortages,” 529.
p. 122
“emergent contaminants”: Glennon, Unquenchable, 168.
p. 123
“the doses are so small”: Ibid.
p. 123
twenty Olympic-size swimming pools: “Priest Point Park Sediment Study Shows Very Low Dioxin Levels,” Washington Department of Ecology, Mar. 24, 2011, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2011/091.html.
p. 124
synthetic compounds in the environment: Royte, Bottlemania, 127–129.
p. 124
ultraviolet light, reverse osmosis: Glennon, Unquenchable, 169.
p. 125
extend to private well water: Glennon, Ibid., 71.
p. 125
not a single chemical: This section is drawn from a series of articles in the New York Times by Charles Duhigg, “That Tap Water is Legal but May be Unhealthy” New York Times, Dec. 16, 2009. The contaminants are listed at http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/index.cfm.
p. 125
violated key provisions: Charles Duhigg, “Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 2009.
p. 126
“the level of enforcement activity”: Ibid.
p. 126
“dumping poisons into streams”: Ibid.
p. 127
bacteria, nitrates, and phosphates: Charles Duhigg, “Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls,” New York Times, Sept. 17, 2009.
p. 127
Fracking diagram. http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy/pdfs/overview-fact-sheet.pdf.
p. 128
national gas from overseas: Marianne Lavelle, “Natural as stirs Hope and Fear in Pennsylvania,” National Geographic, Oct. 13, 2010.
p. 128
fracking could satisfy the nation’s need: Abrahm Lust-garten, “Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking,” ProPublica, http://www.propublica.org/article/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-to-fracking.
p. 128
Any ray of hope here: Ibid.
p. 129
methane seepage in water wells: Letter to Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, available at ProPublica, http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/methane/pdep_nov_cabot_090227.pdf.
p. 129
“lifted clear off the ground”: Abrahm Lustgarten, “Officials in Three States Pin Water Woes on Gas Drilling,” ProPublica, Apr. 26, 2009.
p. 129
natural gas drilling boom: See http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/about-the-film.
p. 130
distant drinking water sources: Bryan Walsh, “Another Fracking Mess for the Shale-Gas Industry,” Time, May 9, 2011.
p. 130
had the CEO himself drunk the fluid: Catherine Tsai, “Halliburton Executive Drinks Fracking Fluid At Conference,” Huffington Post, Aug. 22, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/22/halliburton-executive-drinks-fracking-fluid_n_933621.html.
p. 130-1
exempted fracking from coverage: Abrahm Lustgarten, “Natural Gas Drilling: What We Don’t Know,” ProPublica, http://www.propublica.org//article/natural-gas-drilling-what-we-dont-know-1231.
p. 131
the “Halliburton Loophole”: Editorial, “The Halliburton Loophole,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03tue3.html.
p. 131
West Virginia has one inspector: Ibid.
p. 131
a 1 in 3,333 chance: Morris, The Blue Death, 162.
p. 133
anthropologist Eva-Marita Rinne: Rinne, “‘Seeing is Believing,’” 278.
p. 134
more valuable than diamonds: See, e.g., Michael V. White, “Doctoring Adam Smith: The Fable of the Diamonds and Water Paradox,” History of Political Economy 34 (2002), 659.
p. 134
drinking from the nearby red well: Nava Ashraf et al., “Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia” (National Bureau of Economic Research, working paper no. 13247, 2007), http://www.nber.org//papers/w13247.pdf.
p. 135
does not provide cause for alarm: “Where are PPCPs found in the environment?,” Environmental Protection Agency, http://epa.gov/ppcp/faq.html#ifthereareindeed.
p. 136
additional 25 percent worried: Charles Fishman, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water (New York: Free Press 2011), 174.
p. 136
standards for bottled water: See “Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?,” Natural Resources Defense Council (1999), http://www.nrdc.org//water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp.
p. 138
the Sacramento radio station: “Radio Station Fires 10 After Deadly Contest,” CBS5.com, Jan. 16, 2007, http://cbs5.com/watercooler/water.contest.water.2.278829.html.
p. 138
cause of death was determined: “Doctors: Marathoner Died from Too Much Water,” TheBostonChannel.com, Aug. 13, 2002, http://www.thebostonchannel.com/newscenter5/1610699/detail.html.
p. 138
on the day of the race: Steve Nearman, “Too Much of a Good Thing,” Washington Times, Oct. 24, 2003.
p. 139
and even death: Coco Ballantyne, “Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill,” Scientific American, June 21, 2007.
p. 139
As Paracelsus famously expounded: W. Norman Aldridge, Mechanisms and Concepts in Toxicology (Taylor & Francis: London, 1996), 137.
5: Blue Terror
p. 140
break-in at the town’s water tower: Tom Arrandale, “Hydro Defense,” Newsday (Apr. 2007), 50.
p. 142
poisonous hellebore roots: Gleick, The World’s Water.
p. 142
diseased animal carcasses: James A. Romano, Brian J. Lukey, and Harry Salem, eds., Chemical Warfare Agents: Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics (Boca Raton: CRC press, 2007), 53.
p. 142
allegedly introduced cholera strains: Ibid.
p. 142
cherry laurel water: “Security and Water,” Water Encyclopedia: Science and Issues, http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Re-St/Security-and-Water.html.
p. 142
the strategic position they occupy: J. E. Hoover, “Water Supply Facilities and National Defense,” Journal of the American Water Works Association 33, no. 11 (1941), 1861.
p. 142
facility in Fort Detrick: “Chemical and Biological Terrorism: The Threat Ac
cording to the Open Literature,” Canadian Security Intelligence Service, http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/pblctns/thr/cbtrrrsm02-eng.asp.
p. 142
a plot by the white supremacist group: “Covenant Sword and Arm of the Lord (CSA),” National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3226.
p. 142
a tunnel under the U.S. embassy: Andrew J. Whelton et al., “The Cyanic Threat to Potable Water,” American Water Works Association (AWWA) Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings (June 15–19, 2003), 1.
p. 142
soldiers in Afghanistan: “Water Unsecured: Public Drinking Water is Vulnerable to Terrorist Attack,” The Public Citizen (Oct. 2004), 101.
p. 142-3
“threats against municipal water systems”: Peter S. Beering, “Threats on Tap: Understanding the Terrorist Threat to Water,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 128, no. 3 (2002), 163.
p. 143
A classified 2012 U.S. intelligence assessment: Karen De-Young, “Water shortages increasingly will offer new weapons for states, terror groups,” Washington Post, Mar. 22, 2012.
Drinking Water Page 29