Nov

29

City’s top-ranked tap water not good enough for city employees

November 29, 2006 | 9 Comments

KCMO LogoThis interesting tidbit comes from KSHB-TV 41 via Tony’s Kansas City… KC has some damn fine tap water. It’s been ranked #1 among US cities for taste and quality. The water department is so proud of it that they sell it as bottled water at places like the zoo, convention center, and airport. But as KSHB discovered, it’s not good enough for city employees to drink. City Hall is spending half a million dollars a year to provide employees with UV-filtered water and stock vending machine with Dasani.

$500,000 is enough money to pave one mile of four-lane street.  Our roads rank at the bottom, but we’re spending money so city employees can avoid drinking our top-ranked tap water. Take a minute to think about that, please.

Categories: General


Comments

9 Comments so far

  1. Contractor on November 29, 2006 12:24 pm

    I don’t know who your estimator is but $500,000 wouldn’t even buy you a 1/4 mile of four lane street in KCMO. I guess the point is the same but don’t exagerrate. $500K might make a down payment on one gondola car though. Yipeee!!!

  2. Mark Forsythe on November 29, 2006 12:59 pm

    On the surface it does appear very wasteful.

    Don’t believe everything the TV news tells you though. Especially during November sweeps. I’m pretty sure the Dasani in the vending machines is a contract agreement with Coca-Cola. Those aren’t city-owned vending machines. They belong to the distributor. They don’t provide Coke machines to sell somebody else’s water.

    As far as the City departments buying back the water? A portion of that is providing bottled water along with other beverages at public meetings and other City sponsored events. If there was Dasani water at those events there would be a valid complaint to be made. The figures quoted by KSHB do seem a bit high though. Some investigation there seems in order.

    I’m not absolving the City by any stretch of the imagination. The UV water filters are a bit much. I’m certain there probably is waste. I just don’t believe this to be the “Water-gate” that KSHB wants you to think it is.

  3. Tony on November 29, 2006 1:42 pm

    “Water-gate” How could I have missed that . . . However, I have to disagree I think this is a somewhat important story. A half a rock is a half a rock and if employees at private companies have to chug along their own water like so many babies with their bottles than the folks at City Hall should be forced to do so as well. In my opinion, it’s just another small symptom of what’s going wrong at that place.

  4. limo on November 29, 2006 5:43 pm

    Many private companies provide such beverages for there employees free of charge. But that is neither here nor there. It does seem silly to spend money where it isn’t necessary espescially when the city produces its own product.

  5. Drew Murphy on November 29, 2006 7:02 pm

    TWO WORDS: Katherine Shields.

  6. Derek on December 1, 2006 10:19 am

    Drew,

    point, set, match!

  7. Joe Medley on December 1, 2006 12:40 pm

    Katherine Shields is the executive for Jackson County. This story is about the municipality called Kansas City, Missouri. I know it’s tempting to blame everything on her. (She has obvious problems.) But let’s please keep our eye on the ball here.

  8. limozine on December 1, 2006 5:38 pm

    heh… Good luck, Joe.

  9. Cheryl on December 25, 2006 9:49 am

    I’m not so sure Kansas City’s water safety is all that great. Check out this site:

    Kansas City Water Found Suffering from Systemic Pollution
    by Catherine Komp

    Sept. 21 – High levels of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, cleaning detergents and other chemicals have been detected by federal researchers in the Blue River Basin, located in Missouri and Kansas.
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    The pollution affects about half of the metropolitan area of Kansas City, and researchers say urban development is largely to blame.

    The US Geological Survey, an arm of the Interior Department, has released a report in cooperation with Kansas City that found contamination “may be increasing” and that more investigations are needed. The 166-page report documents a study of the Blue River Basin carried out between 2000 and 2004.

    Development within the upper basin continues at a rapid pace, increasing the potential for toxic water quality, according to researchers. The report states that some of the chemicals examined “likely produce adverse effects” both for humans and the environment, including “direct harm to bacterial or aquatic health.”

    E. coli bacteria, which the EPA states are “a very good predictor” of contamination in fresh waters, was also found from human, dog, bird and unknown sources in high concentrations in several parts of the basin. Samples from two streams running through Kansas City, the Blue River and Brush Creek, yielded concentrations of 380 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters and 355 colonies per 100 milliliters respectively.

    [LINK HERE: http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3693

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