Industrial facilities dumped more than two million pounds of toxic chemicals into Maryland’s waterways, according to a report released today by Environment Maryland: Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act. The report also finds that toxic chemicals were discharged in 1,900 waterways across all 50 states.
Most of Maryland’s toxins are found in Curtis Bay and the Patapsco River. Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, the largest single contributor of fresh water to the Chesapeake Bay, ranked among the 20 top waterways for total toxic discharges.
"While nearly half of the rivers and lakes in the U.S. are considered too polluted for safe fishing or swimming, our report shows that polluters continue to use our waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic chemicals," said Tommy Landers, Policy Advocate with Environment Maryland.
The Environment Maryland report documents and analyzes the dangerous levels of pollutants discharged into America’s waters by compiling toxic chemical releases reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2007, the most recent data available.
Major findings of the report include:
• Industrial facilities in Maryland in 2007 discharged approximately 2,226 pounds of chemicals linked to cancer, 995 pounds of developmental toxics, and 888 pounds of reproductive toxics.
• Maryland’s Curtis Bay ranked in the top 50 waterways for total toxic discharges in 2007 with over 1.5 million pounds of pollution.
• Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, which provides about half the fresh water in the Chesapeake Bay, ranked among the top 20 waterways for total toxic discharges with over 2.6 million pounds of pollution.
• Virginia’s James River, one of the three largest providers of fresh water to Chesapeake Bay, ranked 6th among the nation’s waterways for developmental toxicants, with 13,900 pounds of pollution.
• Nationally, 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals were released to American waterways during 2007 by industrial facilities.
Toxins have had significant harmful effects on marine life. According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, industrial dis¬charges in the state were responsible for 45 separate fish kill events between 1984 and 2008.[1] In the Potomac River basin in 2005, scientists discovered that 80 percent of the male smallmouth bass they captured bore female eggs—a sign that hormonal processes typically found only in female fish were being activated in males.[2]
With facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that nearly half of our waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing. But we should be outraged. Environment Maryland’s report summarizes the discharge of cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment, and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to reduced fertility. Among the toxic chemicals discharged by facilities are lead, mercury, and dioxin. When dumped into waterways, these toxic chemicals contaminate drinking water and are absorbed by the fish that people eventually eat. Exposure to these chemicals is linked to cancer, developmental disorders, and reproductive disorders. In 2007, manufacturing facilities discharged approximately 1.5 million pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into American waters.
"There are common-sense steps that should be taken to turn the tide against toxic pollution of our waters,” added Landers. “We need clean water now, and we need the federal government to act to protect our health and our environment."
In order to curb the toxic pollution threatening Curtis Bay, the Patapsco River, and the Chesapeake Bay itself, Environment Maryland recommends the following:
1. Pollution Prevention: Industrial facilities should reduce their toxic discharges into waterways by switching from hazardous chemicals to safer alternatives.
2. 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.
3. 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.
"We urge Congress and the President to listen to the public’s demands for clean water and a healthy Chesapeake Bay. They should act to protect all of our lakes, rivers and streams from toxic pollution," concluded Landers.
###
[1] Maryland Department of the Environment, Fish Kills in Maryland, downloaded from www.mde.state.md.us/Programs/MultimediaPrograms/environ_emergencies/FishKills_MD/index.asp, 21 May 2009.
[2] David A. Fahrentold, “Male Bass Across Region Found to Be Bearing Eggs,” Washington Post, 6 September 2006
