By Mary Kerr 202-225-6260
Just days after the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing to examine the drastic deterioration of the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement program during the Bush Administration, an environmental advocacy group released a report today showing that 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals have been dumped into the nation’s waterways by industrial facilities.
Environment America’s report, Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act, shows that 1,900 waterways across all 50 states have been adversely affected by the release of cancer-causing, toxic chemicals, such as lead, mercury, and dioxin.
“On October 15, our Committee held a hearing to examine how the deterioration of the EPA’s Clean Water Act enforcement program has set back our progress in achieving the central goals of the Clean Water Act,” said Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), T&I Committee Chairman. “Today, we learned of the very frightening, tangible impacts on human health and the environment that occur when toxic substances are allowed to enter our waters. The fact that many industrial facilities are exploiting the system and using the nation’s waterways as toxic dumping grounds is nothing less than a public health crisis.”
Environment America is a federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. The report analyzed pollutants discharged in to the nation’s waters by compiling toxic chemical releases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2007, the most recent data available.
“This study is extremely concerning, because of the harmful and potentially deadly effects to the environment and public health. The toxic chemical discharges contaminate the nation’s drinking supply and are absorbed by fish, which are then consumed by humans,” said Oberstar. “We have already witnessed enough deformed and intersex fish and wildlife throughout the nation to conclude that something is wrong. I only hope that we, as Americans, will heed this warning and act to address these pollutants before greater harm can occur.”
“As a non-practicing registered nurse, this report is very troubling to me, because the presence of toxic contaminants and pathogens where families, fish and our children play poses a significant health threat to those who unknowingly come in contact with them,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Tex.), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. “There are few public health concerns more serious than the contamination of the public’s water supplies, and we must be more vigilant in our protection of the nation’s waters from potentially harmful pollutants.”
A New York Times’ front page story on September 13 detailed the systemic failure by federal and state governments to enforce the Clean Water Act. The newspaper found that “fewer than three percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials,” and that “unchecked pollution remains a problem in many states.”
“When Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972, the underlying sentiment was that we must clean up and preserve what we have for future generations. The guiding principle was that all waters which ever existed or would exist in the future are here today, and it is our moral responsibility to protect them,” Oberstar said. “This report challenges us to do a better job of protecting our waters, not only for ourselves and our families, but for the protection of generations yet to come.”
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