Anna: Wouldn't you love to live in the No.1 city in the nation? Well, you do. Norman, Oklahoma is leading the nation in the amount of arsenic in the water supply. Everyone in here today should be concerned about this because arsenic is a poison that is slowly killing us through our water intake.

Today, we will be discussing three ideas that will enlighten us on the seriousness of arsenic. First, we will talk about the serious problem of arsenic in the water supply. Then we will talk about how using a reverse osmosis system can be a solution for this problem. And then finally we can see how [inaudible] Norman can benefit through using a reverse osmosis system.

First, I would like to talk to about the serious problem of arsenic in water supply. Many of you here today might be thinking, Well how does arsenic in water affect me? It affects us both internally and externally. First, according to a 1999 study from the National Academy of Science, arsenic causes bladder, lung and skin cancer. It also affects the central nervous system as well as heart and blood vessels. And it can also cause serious birth defects as well as reproductive problems.

Next, It also affects us externally. In the article, "Drinking Without Harm" from the September 200 issue of Scientific American, there are listed several side effects for people who drink water that has arsenic in it. They say that one can ingest low doses of arsenic for eight years before noticing white and black spots that begin to appear on the skin. If this poisoning continues, these spots can turn into leprosy-like legions that will encrust the palms of your hand and the soles of your feet.

Next, comes cancer-- particularly bladder and lung, and then finally, death. The National Resources Defense Council stated in their February 2000 report that 1/100 people who drink water with arsenic levels of 30 parts per billion, which is what we have here in Norman, Oklahoma, will get cancer. That's 1/100 people. So, as you walk to your next class, look around and realize that out of the 25,000 students here at the University of Oklahoma, 250 of them will get cancer because of the arsenic in the water. One of these people could be you.

I'm sure by now most of you are checking your skin and thinking, Why doesn't the government do something about this? The EPA has recently changed their standards for arsenic levels from 50 parts per billion to a maximum amount of 10 parts per billion. And every community has until the year 2006 to have a water supply in compliance with this rule.

So what kind of problems has this caused for the #1 city in the nation? If the requirements are not met, the city of Norman will have to shut down 29 of its wells because the arsenic levels are too high. These wells have averages of over 30 parts per billion. This is three times the maximum amount that the EPA is allowing.

In the article "Wells Don't Meet EPA Standards" from the March 7, 2001 edition of the OU Daily, they stated that some these wells have had arsenic levels of over 100 parts per billion. And the city is still providing this water to the community, even though the EPA states in their rules that the maximum amount can only be 10 parts per billion. As for the water here at the University of Oklahoma, it isn't any better. All six of OU's wells have averages of over 30 parts per billion. Once again, this is 3 times the maximum amount that the government will allow.

As you can see from statistics, arsenic is a serious problem here in the city of Norman, Oklahoma. Now I'd like to move to my second point, which is discussing how using a reverse osmosis system can be a solution for this problem.

This is a picture of a reverse osmosis system. And simply put, this process consists of running water through a filter in a treatment plant so that the arsenic will be removed. These systems can be installed for both private or public use. A citizen can install one of these systems in their homes for around $200. This might not seem like very much to us, but it could be very expensive for some college students.

Secondly, the city of Norman and the University of Oklahoma should consider using a reverse osmosis system to treat their water. Once again, this might be very expensive but we have to do something, otherwise our wells will be shut down. This would cause the city of Norman to lose 1.7 million gallons of water each day. And the University of Oklahoma would lose over 1 million gallons of water each day also.

For us here on campus, this could be a major problem. How would you like to have your water completely shut off? Or better yet, what if the university told you that you would only have water in your room for one hour each day? I know this might sound ridiculous, but it could happen if the arsenic levels are not reduced.

Now I'd like to go to my third and final point, which is discussing how the city of Norman could benefit from using a reverse osmosis system. The use of these systems could help clean the arsenic out of the water so that we would all be able to drink it once again. Reverse osmosis cleans 99.5% of all metals, such as arsenic, from water.

These systems can also help us in preventing acts of terrorism. The organization Heartland of America said that terrorists could try to use poison in our water system to kill us. You can see from this chart that reverse osmosis can filter out things such as bacteria, viruses and other contaminations that terrorists could try to use in poisoning us through our water system.

These are just two of many ways that we, as citizens of Norman, could benefit from using a reverse osmosis system. In conclusion, today we have discussed three ideas concerning the seriousness of arsenic here in Norman, Oklahoma. First we discussed the serious problem of arsenic in the water supply. Then we talked about how using a reverse osmosis system can be a solution for this problem. And finally, we discussed how the city of Norman can benefit from using a reverse osmosis system.

I know that many of you here today are huge OU sports fans, and you always want to see OU ranked #1, no matter what it might be. Well today I'm here to tell you that there are some things that you just don't want to be #1 at. Norman, Oklahoma, should be leading the nation in something besides the amount of arsenic in the water supply. If you are concerned about your life, or the health of others around you, please contact your Norman City Council members and express to them your serious concern for this deadly problem of arsenic in the Norman water supply. Thank you.

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