November 16, 2013

The Dangers of Dehydrantation

Hatched by Dafydd

Obamic Idiocy of the Day: Tens of thousands of fire hydrants ready to be installed or replaced in cities around the country, to supply water for fire hoses, must now be scrapped -- because the Evironmental Protection Agency has ruled that hydrants must conform to the same lead-in-drinking-water standards as kitchen and bathroom faucets. Thus cities must purchase extremely expensive, low-lead hydrants... or more likely, go without.

Fewer and more expensive fireplugs... that's what America's all about!

The  rent seekers'  regulators' reasoning runs thus:

  1. A while ago, the EPA changed the rule for how much metal can come in contact with water in ordinary kitchen and bathroom faucets. Today, 8% of the metal in a faucet can come in contact with the water; but starting January 4th, the EPA allows only 0.25% of the metal in a faucet to touch the waterflow. (This happened first in California, I believe; a few years ago, I had the dickens of a time buying a nice brass faucet assembly for my kitchen sink; I had to use a cut-out buyer in Texas.)
  2. In rare and extreme emergencies, such as the contamination or loss of all drinking water in a large area, fire departments might open fire hydrants to give people water to drink, so they wouldn't suffer dehydration or heatstroke.
  3. Because of this conceivability, the EPA abruptly and without warning decided, starting January 4th, not to exempt fire hydrants from the faucet regulations!

It is an Obamic moment.

The EPA says it wants to make sure that even in the most unlikely of circumstances, even during a life and death emergency, Americans will be protected from the levels of lead (now considered "toxic") that we have all lived with all our lives without noticible ill effect. If it saves the live of just one child who imbibes hydrant water once or twice in his lifetime, it will be worth the regulation -- even if we have to kill hundreds of other children by reducing the number of life-preserving fire hydrants in America's cities. Can't make an omlet without cracking a few heads!

Your federal government hard at work, for your safety. Say, here's a thought that might appeal to both  regurgitators  regulators and regulated cities alike: Why not just slap a "luxury tax" on ordinary fire hydrants? It worked so well with yachts.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 16, 2013, at the time of 5:53 PM

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