The Associated Press is reporting this week that federal regulators under President Obama are taking the first steps toward regulating drugs in the nation’s drinking water supply — a problem first reported by science writer Elizabeth Royte in “Drugging Our Waters” in OnEarth’s Fall 2006 issue.

Royte tells the story of how this nation’s aging population and increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals — some elderly Americans take as many as 30 drugs a day, she writes, and prescription drug sales rose by an annual average of 11 percent between 2000 and 2005 — leads to more drugs making their way into our lakes, rivers and groundwater.

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Source: Scott Dodd, OnEarth.org/ Switchboard (NRDC)