Environmental Group Says Half Of America's Rivers, Lakes Considered Too Polluted With Toxins For Swimming

October 24, 2009 7:16 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A new report by an environmental group reveals that half of America's rivers and lakes are too polluted to safely swim in, part of the damage from industrial facilities using the nation's waterways as a dumping ground for 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals.

Environment America's report found toxic chemicals were discharged into 1,900 waterways across the nation's 50 states.

"Our waterways are a source of sport and recreation. We need them protected, not polluted," said Gary Botzek, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Conservation Federation, in a statement released by Environment America.

Environment America used releases reported to the U.S. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory for 2007, the most recent available data to analyze dangerous levels of pollutants discharged into America's waters. Most of the toxic chemicals are classified as persistent toxins, meaning they don't just break down and go away, they keep polluting the water they are in.

Major findings of the report include:

• Indiana topped the nation with over 27 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into the state's waterways in 2007.
• ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Baton Rouge Refinery released over 4.2 million pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The ExxonMobil refinery was one of the largest reported polluter of toxic chemicals in the country in 2007.
• The top three waterways in the nation for most total toxic chemicals discharged in 2007 were the Ohio River, New River, and Mississippi River. The Ohio River also topped the nation for toxic chemicals that are cancer causing and chemicals that cause reproductive disorders. The Alabama River had the highest amount of toxic chemicals causing developmental disorders in the nation in 2007.

Environment America made the following common-sense recommendations to protect the nation's waterways and ensure Americans have safe, clean water:

• Pollution Prevention: Industrial facilities should reduce their toxic discharges in to waterways by switching from hazardous chemicals to safer alternatives.
• Tough permitting and enforcement: EPA and state agencies should issue permits with tough, numeric limits for each type of toxic pollution discharged, ratchet down those limits over time, and enforce those limits with credible penalties, not just warning letters.
• Protect all waters: The federal government should adopt policies to clarify that the Clean Water Act applies to all of our waterways. This includes the thousands of headwaters and small streams for which jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act has been called into question, as a result of recent court decisions.