WASHINGTON - Nearly six years after environmental inspectors found e-coli contamination in the water systems of commercial airliners, the feds have come up with final rules designed to make onboard drinking water safer.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this past week ordered the airlines to routinely disinfect, flush and test water in galleys and lavatories on U.S. planes. The airlines have two years to come into compliance. Foreign airlines are not included in the rule.
In 2004, EPA tested water from galley and lavatory faucets and found 327 planes had contaminated water. The agency directed all carriers to make sure their water was clean, but only now have come out with final regulations that carry some punch, or will two years hence.
Estimated cost to the airlines: $7 million.
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An acceleration in the number of motorcyclists dying on American roads has spurred the U.S. Federal Highway Administration to order a sweeping study to find out why.
The four-year project, conducted with Oklahoma State University, will examine the factors that have contributed to a 150 percent increase in motorcycle fatalities -- from 2,100 to 5,300 a year -- between 1997 and 2008. Last year, motorcycle deaths comprised 14 percent of all roadway fatalities.
Each crash will be dissected by analysts in a hunt for patterns, although experts say the growing toll is not a result of more motorcycles on the road. Road configurations, environmental conditions and rider skill levels will be examined.
The last time a full-bore study of motorcycle crashes was conducted was in 1981, and the conclusions were that alcohol, lack of training and no helmets were largely to blame.
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The Congressional Record is now being printed on 100-percent recycled paper.
Every day, the U.S. Government Printing Office cranks out 4,130 copies of the digest, which transcribes every word uttered on the floors of Congress, as well as additional remarks submitted by lawmakers but not spoken.
During the back-patting part of the press conference to announce the ecological accomplishment this past week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congressional Records played an important role in her home when she was growing up as the daughter of a Democratic congressman from Maryland.
Pelosi said it was her mom's job to tend the stacks of Records so her husband could find the one he needed fast when he was working at home. Her mother stored them under her brothers' beds where, the speaker said, they served the vital, if ancillary, purpose of keeping their beds from collapsing when they jumped on them.
"It was not only our library, but a way to have the beds be more sound," Pelosi said.
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If gun owners are allowed to pack their unloaded firearms in their checked baggage on airplanes, they should have the same right when traveling on Amtrak trains. That's the contention of a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers, who have introduced legislation that would allow just that. The measures are sponsored by, among others, Reps. John Fleming, R-La.; Heath Shuler, D-N.C; and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Washington Calling
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