国家地理 拉响关于水质的警报(3)

（单词翻译）

Everyone has a right to clean water, no matter what you look like, how much money you make, or which political party you favor. In America, that right is enshrined in the Clean Water Act of 1972, which defines how the EPA regulates pollutants¹ in U.S. waters, and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, which establishes maximum amounts of pollutants in all public water systems. Those federal laws were passed at the peak of environmental degradation² in our country -- a time when smog choked our cities and rivers were so contaminated they regularly caught fire.

每个人都有权利喝干净的水，无论长相如何、收入多少、支持哪个政党。在美国，1972年《净水法案》和1974年《安全饮用水法案》明确保障了这项权利。《净水法案》明定美国环境保护局如何规范美国水域中的污染物，《安全饮用水法案》则制定所有公共自来水系统中的污染物含量上限。这两个联邦法都是在美国环境问题最严重时通过的，当时雾霾围堵我们的城市、河流污染严重导致经常起火燃烧。

Those laws and many other regulations at state and city levels have made great progress toward reducing pollution and addressing public health. Some of us now don't worry about the toxicity³ of the air for our children's afternoon soccer games or the flammability of the local river, primarily because our environmental protections have worked. But in far too many places around the country, those basic laws are not being upheld or enforced, and people are suffering the consequences.

这两个联邦法加上许多州级和市级法规，在减少污染和处理公卫方面获得巨大进展，我们之中某些人现在不必担心孩子在下午足球赛时受到空气毒害，或是当地河流会起火燃烧，主要就是因为我们的环境保护法规发挥了作用。但在全美有更多地方，这些基本法都不受重视或没有执行，让人民来承担恶果。