Neglected Clean Water Laws = Higher Human Suffering
Just back from kayaking on the Oconee River, sitting on the launch-ramp waiting for my ride, I perused the NYTimes on my iphone. There I found this massive investigation of water pollution:
Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.
In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.
However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.
The Times quotes one recent study that found 19.5 million of us get sick each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses.
In Wisconsin and California, farmers spray liquefied animal feces onto fields. From there it has seeps into wells, causing severe infections.
In Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana, pesticides are linked to birth defects and fertility problems.
New York, Rhode Island, Ohio and California are among those states where heavy rain causes sewer systems to overflow into rivers and onto beaches.
In New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts it’s high concentrations of tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent linked to kidney damage and cancer.
Records analyzed by The Times indicate that the Clean Water Act has been violated more than 506,000 times since 2004, by more than 23,000 companies and other facilities, according to reports submitted by polluters themselves. Companies sometimes test what they are dumping only once a quarter, so the actual number of days when they broke the law is often far higher. And some companies illegally avoid reporting their emissions, say officials, so infractions go unrecorded.
The Clean Water Act is was one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever. Does anyone doubt that this is a direct result of the anti-regulation Bush era?
Probably those same people who doubt deregulation of the financial markets cased the collapse of our banking system do. That’s dogma over data. The Times amply demonstrates the connection.
You can find water polluters near you in this interactive database of water polluters. Search by state, city or zip code. There are 117 violations and not a single fine levied near me. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of the date and responses The Times has received from 39 states. Their Toxic Waters archive has more.
And while we’re on the topic of polluted water, the AP reports today that the dangerous staph bacteria, MRSA, has been found in sand and water for the first time at five public beaches along the coast of Washington. Scientists believe the state is not the only one with this problem.
16 Responses to “Neglected Clean Water Laws = Higher Human Suffering”
<Republican Logic>
Don't you know that enforcing the laws that were passed by a Democratic Congress would be socialism…
And any thing that the Government did to protect the American Public from Corporations attempting to squeeze an extra nickel from the American Public would be Nazism.
</Republican Logic>
I think the CWA is a good piece of legislation as far as waterways that cross more than one State. In cases where a waterway is entirely within the confines of one State I think the 10th Amendment should apply and the States should determine their own procedures. If a State waterway feeds into a larger body such as the ocean I think CWA should apply as well.
“The Clean Water Act is was one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever. Does anyone doubt that this is a direct result of the anti-regulation Bush era?”
How do you figure? The Clean Water Act is still in place, no?
Please make a list of Rivers that don't cross State lines and don't flow into the Ocean or the Great Lakes.
All the laws in the world will not do anyone any good if they are not enforced. And if they are not going to be enforced, the people who don't want to enforce them should run a repeal this law platform.
Since the Republicans don't seem to want to enforce the “Clean Water Act” or the “Clean Air Act”, they should run on a platform to repeal both those pieces of legislation.
<blockkquote> Please make a list of Rivers that don't cross State lines and don't flow into the Ocean or the Great Lakes.
Lakes are also covered by the CWA and some rivers feed into lakes other than The Great Lakes and the ocean.
The examples Leonidas cited suggest that the only rivers that don't end up in an ocean eventually flow into salt-water lakes. Don't most lakes eventually run to the ocean?
No, this isn't the fault of the evil arsenic-loving Bush-Cheney crowd.
No, the answer isn't to rush into idiotic excess like the House “climate” idiotic, destructive, pathological excess.
First is to look, and think, before we step (much less leap), especially with the federal government (which should always be the last, not first, resort if we choose government intervention) Whatever is sought must face intelligent analysis and review and be cost-effective as well as practical and likely to succeed.
[sigh]
The Weber River has a tributary that starts in Wyoming. Weber River Map
There aren't to many watersheds that don't cross State lines.
Yes, it is…
They didn't want to regulate, therefor they didn't.
It doesn't matter if the CWA is in place if for eight years the people in charge of those who are meant to enforce it did their best to make certain that it wouldn't be enforced.
Do you have evidence of that, Jim? The memo to the EPA suggesting they back off on enforcing the clean water act, perhaps? Something a little less circumstantial than “Bush was in office, therefore it's a conservative conspiracy”?
Notes to Joe:
1. Take the N out of the name and you may want to visit a livelier place sometime.
(The park was the site of Olympic competition and you may know it's also the site of a rare specimen, a cable-stayed bridge that actually looks attractive from an architecture and an aesthetic point of view.)
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ocoee/
http://www.sitesolutionsmag.com/pdf/v3i2/los_ol…
2. (Relative to Atlanta metro) Beyond Ocoee, and returning to a more placid, ideal-for-tubing-and-telecom-use-while-afloat kind of experience if you can't manage to leave your electronic goodies out of reach anywhere, any time, try the Nantahala River gorge area.
http://www.noc.com/
* * *
You can revile the evil Bush-Cheney people and their industry buddies all you want, about clean water, about clean air (real pollution, not “greenhouse gas” silliness) — but it's obvious that any sound reaction or improvement to that (real or imagined) failure does not include rushing to pass what is not cost-effective, logical, or practical or economic. (Nor rushing in general as the Dems have done this year.)
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