Water Pollution Putting Our Health At Risk

While most of us assume that the water our kids swim in and the fish we catch are safe, this assumption is often untrue. In fact, Washington's waterways have become so polluted that activities we once took for granted have become serious health risks.

The Reality Of Our Waterways

The Port of Seattle alone has enough toxic waste in it to fill 3,500 dump trucks. Photo courtesy of ArtToday.com

• According to Clean Water Act standards, it is unhealthy to fish or swim in 59 percent of our rivers, 35 percent of our lakes and 65 percent of our estuaries.

• At least 640 waterbodies in the state fail to meet water quality standards. That puts Washington in the bottom fifth of states for waterbodies not meeting water quality safeguards.

• Forty-five percent of Washington's major water polluters are currently operating with expired Clean Water Act permits. This means that Ecology isn't doing its job in monitoring pollution and is failing to enforce the Clean Water Act.

• In 2000 alone, polluters dumped nearly 2.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals—much of it legally—into Washington's waterways.

• Between 1999 and 2001, nearly 20 percent of municipal and industrial facilities violated their Clean Water Act permits for chemicals that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health problems.

The Polluter Lobby: Our Waters, Their Sewers

Much of the worst pollution comes from large industries, who, for years, have used our public waterways as their own private sewers.

These polluters have a horde of lobbyists in Olympia who are working to keep the state from toughening laws to reduce pollution.

So far, they have succeeded. Despite the fact that the federal Clean Water Act requires states to review and improve water quality protections every three years, polluters have successfully prevented such a review in Washington for nearly 10 years.

This means little is being done to reduce the amount of pollution dumped into Washington's waterways. In 2000 alone,polluters dumped nearly 2.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals—much of it legally—into our waterways.

Contaminated Drinking Water

Wells and small drinking water systems have been contaminated by industry or agriculture in Bellingham, Chehallis, Kenniwick, Moses Lake, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver and other cities.

Because of the pollution in our drinking water sources, water utilities are forced to chlorinate water to eliminate disease-causing microorganisms. But chlorination can create chemical byproducts that increase a woman's risk of miscarriage or of having a child with birth defects.

Threats To Unique Ecosystems

Since 1995,the number of orcas in Puget Sound has declined by at least 15 percent, in part because of increasing amounts of toxic chemicals in our waterways. Photo courtesy of ArtToday.com

Not only do polluted waters threaten human health,they also endanger many of Washington's unique ecosystems and wildlife.

Currently,14 species of salmon and steelhead are listed as threatened or endangered species. Ecology reports that in 2000, at least half of the water bodies it monitors rated "poor" or "fair" for supporting healthy salmon populations.

Recent studies show that the Puget Sound orca population has one of the highest levels of toxic pollution of any whale species in the world.

In fact, the number of orcas in Puget Sound dropped to just 78 in the summer of 2001, causing the National Marine Fisheries Service to consider whether to list the orca as an endangered or threatened species.

WashPIRG's Platform: Clean, Healthy Waters Now

Thirty years ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to protect and restore all of the nation's waterways so they are again safe for fishing and swimming.

WashPIRG is calling on the Department of Ecology to fulfill the requirements of the Clean Water Act and develop safeguards that will:

• Strengthen Water Quality Standards—Ecology must complete the review of Washington's water quality standards by the spring of 2003, and propose improvements to resolve Washington's water pollution problems.

• Enforce The Clean Water Act—The state must assess penalties on polluters that are sufficient to deter improper practices and prevent violations from occurring.

• Strengthen Pollution Permits—Ecology should reduce the amount of chemicals that it permits industries to dump into Washington's waterways, as required by the federal Clean Water Act.

• Restore Degraded Waters—Ecology must ensure that polluters are not allowed to discharge pollutants into waters that do not meet water quality standards.

Tell Ecology What You Think

Thanks to the efforts of polluters, it has been 10 years since Ecology completed a review of our water quality standards—despite the fact that the Clean Water Act requires that a review be completed every three years.

Ecology is now planning to complete the review this spring. However, polluters are already working to delay the process further and weaken the standards.

WashPIRG is calling on Ecology to fulfill the requirements of the Clean Water Act.