Report says more
needs to be done for Ohio, Muskingum rivers
By Justin
McIntosh
The two rivers
that converge at Marietta are among the 10 most polluted in the country,
according to a new environmental report.
The information,
culled from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory
from 2007, shows that more toxic chemicals are dumped into the Ohio River than
any other waterway in the country. The Muskingum River, meanwhile, was the
ninth most polluted waterway, according to the report.
What that data
means about the safety of the waterways, though, is getting mixed analysis from
different environmental groups.
Amanda Moore,
field organizer with Environment Ohio, the group that put together the report,
said the data proves what was common knowledge where she grew up in Bridgeport,
along the Ohio River.
"It's not a
clean river to swim in," she said.
It also shows,
Moore said, that more needs to be done to clean up the country's waterways.
Environment Ohio
is using the data to call on the EPA and Ohio's Congressional leaders to
restore the protections of the Clean Water Act by passing the Clean Water
Restoration Act, and to issue tougher permitting regulations and enforcement.
After all, Moore
said, the Ohio River is ranked first in the nation for most cancer-causing
toxic discharges, with 96,669 pounds in 2007. Overall, the river had more than
31 million pounds of toxics dumped into it in 2007, the report says.
The Muskingum
River, meanwhile, had an overall total of a little less than 5 million pounds
of toxics discharged into it.
Kraton Polymers
LLC in Belpre was the biggest discharger along the Ohio River in the Buckeye
State, Moore said, with about 577,000 pounds in 2007. Eramet Marietta Inc. was
No. 2 in the state, with more than 180,000 pounds. But neither facility could
be located on a graph in the report listing the top 20 facilities.
AK Steel Corp
Coshocton Works in Coshocton led the way for the Muskingum River.
Among the toxic chemicals
discharged by facilities are lead, mercury and dioxin, the report says.
Exposure to these chemicals is linked to cancer, developmental disorders and
reproductive disorders.
Linda Oros,
spokeswoman with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency
closely monitors which chemicals are discharged into waterways - and at what
levels - to ensure safe rivers, streams and lakes.
"We're
concerned about (the Ohio River) as well, and have been for a number of
years," she said.
Oros said
companies are allowed to discharge a certain amount of chemicals according to
their permits, which are determined based on agency guidelines for safety.
"The amount
allowed to be discharged is determined by scientific monitoring," she
said. "It varies from facility to facility, and chemical to
chemical."
Last year alone,
the agency had 49 enforcement orders, doled out $1.28 million in penalties, and
$997,000 in supplemental and environmental project penalties, which are
projects businesses are required to do to improve the environment in lieu of
fines.
Eric Fitch,
director of Marietta College's environmental science program, said the latest
study shows how little progress has been made cleaning up the country's
waterways since the Clean Water Act was passed in the 1970s.
"We've lost
ground," he said. "While in recent months CWA enforcement has been
ticking up in terms of importance, we see more and more the bodies of water in
the United States are not protected, and they should be. It's the law; it's the
law of the land going on 40 years."
Kristyn Robinson,
watershed coordinator for the Friends of the Lower Muskingum River, an
organization formed to restore, protect and maintain the river, disagreed about
the Muskingum River's safety as it relates to swimming or fishing.
"I don't
believe that's true," she said. "We are not the cleanest river, but
we have good fish populations in our river, healthy fish populations of
sensitive species."
Robinson cited a
2006 report by the Ohio EPA that surveyed the Muskingum River from Coshocton
down to the mouth in Marietta.
"They found
overall a healthy river," she said. "They did water samples,
biological samples, habitat assessments.... And they found that overall our
river is in good health."
Robinson also
pointed out that the Environment Ohio report also doesn't specify the Muskingum
River as having large amounts of cancer-causing toxics or developmental
inhibitors.
According to the
Environment Ohio report, the Ohio River leads the nation for having the highest
total of cancer-causing chemicals discharged into it, with 96,699 pounds; is
fourth in the country for having the most developmental toxicant releases, with
37,364 pounds; and is first in the nation for having the most reproductive toxicant
releases, with 29,665 pounds.
The Muskingum
River doesn't even appear in the top 20 of any of those lists. The river does
show up as having the 32nd most developmental toxicant releases, and the 45h
most reproductive toxicants, while not showing up in the top 50 most
cancer-causing chemicals discharged list.
"So while we
have a toxic release mass amount, the actual types of toxic materials being
released into the Muskingum River aren't the highly toxic, cancer-causing
materials," Robinson said. "That really makes sense to me. We would
not be finding sensitive fish species if we had toxic chemicals in our
river."
The chemical
found most often in the Muskingum River, Robinson said, is nitrogen, which
poses some toxicity, but not at a high level.
The more nitrogen
in the water decreases the amount of oxygen and species will uptake in
nitrogen," she said. "We don't have fish kills, though. There's a
sufficient amount of oxygen."
