This year marks 50 years of the Clean Water Act. Many environmental groups claim that the landmark law’s promises are not being kept at half-century. Pollution has affected fifty percent of the country’s streams and rivers.
Congress passed the law after news media published stories about rivers polluted setting fire to them, such as the Rouge and Cuyahoga in Detroit.
The Clean Water Act’s primary goal is to ensure that water is safe for swimming and fishing. Today, many states fail to meet this goal.
The Environmental Integrity Project, (EIP), was compiled A reportTo measure the state’s performance, we use federal and state data.
According to Tom Pelton (a spokesperson for EIP), Michigan is number one in the United States for the most miles of rivers and streams that are impaired for fish consumption.
Lester Graham
/
Michigan Radio
Michigan’s total miles of rivers are far greater than those of other states.
Michigan fish are contaminated. Some fish are contaminated with toxic chemicals like mercury, PCBs and PFAS. Nearly every watershed contains some amount of one toxic chemical, sometimes more.
The report showed that Michigan had the fourth most miles of streams and rivers that were impaired for swimming and recreation. Swimming is dangerously unsafe because of the possibility that waterways could be contaminated by bacteria from livestock farms or leaking septic systems.
Inland lakes are impacted by nutrients runoff from farm fields. This can lead to algal growth and, in some cases, cyanobacteria. As has been seenThe western basin of Lake Erie.
Although this is difficult politically, we must confront the fact of agricultural runoff being the largest source of water pollution in America today. Eric Schaeffer, executive Director of EIP, stated that he doesn’t believe that was true 50 years ago.
The report of the groups indicates that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should close the loophole in agricultural runoff and regulate pollution sources from farming practices.
It also requests that the EPA adhere to the Clean Water Acts mandate regarding updating limits for polluting substances as technology advances.
The report’s authors also discovered that some states do better at assessing the impacts of pollution in water. Their numbers seem to be higher than the rest because they actively look for problems. Some states do not make that effort. The group suggests that Congress or the EPA should establish more consistent and universal guidelines to determine water impairment designations in all 50 states.
It concluded that the Clean Water Acts goal of clean, safe waterways is a difficult task. The EPA must make more effort to reach it.