love that dirty water
tommyOne of the stated goals of Tampa’s Department of Clean is to be in the top ten cleanest cities. I know you are wondering where we stand right now.
The Department of Clean references a pdf of the list of cleanest/dirtiest big cities in the US. They don’t include the source, but after a bit of digging, I found a very similar list that was compiled by Reader’s Digest. RD compared the 50 biggest cities in five categories: Air, Water, Toxics, Hazardous Waste, and Sanitation. Tampa ranks #31 overall, beaten by sixty percent of all cities.
Yep - we’re dirtier than such pristine places such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Milwaukee. Portland, San Jose, and Buffalo top the list as cleanest. Orlando ranks 9th - Florida’s best showing here. Chicago is dirtiest, followed closely by New York and Pittsburgh.
Tampa scored tenth best in Air quality, and ranked the nation’s best(!) in Sanitation. Unfortunately, the city is 17th worst in both Toxics and Hazardous Waste. Even more shocking is our ranking in Water Quality - Tampa is THIRD WORST in the nation behind only New York City and Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City?).
So what is the Department of (sorta) Clean doing to improve water quality here? Nothing, really. On one hand, they promise to work on “Reducing & eliminating illegal dumping activities,” which should help. But then again, they are also in charge of “Treating major thoroughfares and residential corridors with herbicide spray application,” which probably won’t do much good for our water quality.
Besides, water quality is the job of the Water Department, and they think Tampa’s water is good enough to bottle!
I’m thinking Tampa won’t make it into the top ten any time soon.
Tags: city, environment, health, tampa, utilities
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May 9th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I was staying with the mom-in-law down in Riverview a few summers ago. We had taken a bottle of Zephyrhills from the garage fridge to keep on the nightstand. I took a sip about 2am and all but spit it out and remarked “How can get people to pay for this stuff?” I swear it tasted just like dirt. Unbeknownst to us, she was a re-bottler, filling those convenient little bottles from the tap. So far the worst tap water I’ve ever tasted anywhere in the country. City of Tampa is better, but not by much.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Here’s why Tampa is dirty: People throw trash out their car windows and think it’s OK because “the city will come pick it up.” Why not just keep from littering to begin with! That especially includes all ciggie suckers who think the whole world is their ashtray.
May 9th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Ciggs were also the cause of one of the latest brushfires. Nice!
May 10th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Boston you’re my home.