Forget Mackerel. Holy Bass.

The Clean Water Act is no longer keeping our water clean.

In 1972 Congress bulked up 1948’s Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The new and improved law, signed by President Nixon in '72, set basic goals for U.S. lakes and rivers (and all other surface waters) to be fishable and swimmable. The resulting Clean Water Act (CWA), as it has come to be known, was, you might say, a watershed moment, setting federal standards for:

• what substances could be discharged by industries and municipalities into our waterways and
• the levels or limits for dischargers' wastewater (known as "performance standards").

Later amended in 1977 and expanded again in 1981 and 1987, the act has been incredibly effective:

• the quality of our surface waters has steadily improved, thanks to limits imposed on point sources such as industries and wastewater treatment plants;
• the loss of wetlands has slowed dramatically; and
• vast tracts have been added to our National Estuary Program.

Well, effective, but never able to achieve Congress's ambitious goal [pdf] for the CWA to eliminate the “discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters” by 1985. And as of 2007, some half of the waters covered by the CWA (which is enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency) were still not fishable or swimmable.

A noticeable flaw of the act is its failure to adequately control discharges from so-called non-point sources [pdf], such as run-off of fertilizers from farms — a major issue that can lead to poor water quality in downstream waterways and dead zones in the ocean.

Now a plethora of yet more appalling problems are surfacing.

Clean Water Violations Galore

If you don’t think the United States has water-quality problems, check out last Saturday’s New York Times. Here is one tidbit from an article with many, many such tidbits:

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.”

From its research, the paper estimates that “one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways."

This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Pollution

As if that’s not bad enough, the NYT points out that today’s water pollution is often devoid of smell and taste, meaning that many who have ingested dangerous chemicals have no idea they have done so, even once they’ve become sick.

We are now dealing with a whole new class of water pollutants that were never conceived of when the CWA was passed. Despite looking crystal clear, water may contain dangerous levels of dissolved metals or so-called emerging pollutants like endocrine disrupters. Put that in your water bottle and try to smile while you drink it. (More on endocrine disrupters in this previous post.)

Just one shocking example documented in the Times article spotlights the experiences of West Virginians living near coalmines and coal-processing sites. It turns out the companies there have been injecting industrial waste directly into the ground, at times causing discolored tap water as well as skin rashes, rotting teeth, and ugly brown deposits and corrosion on the inside of washing machines and water heaters. Chemical analyses of the water revealed dangerously high levels of elements like arsenic, barium, lead, and manganese.

(And then there's the news story from July about “17 veterans with rare cancer or tumors with Camp Lejeune ties” — a disturbing finding possibly linked to contaminated drinking water. Two federal studies are looking into links between diseases and those living near the Marine base.)

Vive 'La Difference'? In Bass Not So Much

Fresh on the heels of such news items, a paper published online in Aquatic Toxicology suggests that another U.S. water-quality problem is far more widespread than we'd thought.

Ellen Hinck of the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues found that intersex fish — fish possessing both female and male reproductive features — are found in a surprising number of U.S. rivers. Of the nine basins studied, intersex fish were found in all but Alaska’s Yukon River. The condition was most prevalent in large-mouth bass in the Southeast.

In limited testing for a handful of historically important contaminants (such as DDT derivatives), Hinck’s team found the most commonly detected contaminants in the fish included mercury, pesticides, and PCBs. While the study stops short of elucidating what's causing this sexual anomaly, previous studies have identified some of these compounds as endocrine disrupters and linked them to intersex fish. (Again, here's my post on endocrine disrupters.)

Where Do We Go From Here?

As a first step, EPA needs to enforce the laws on the books. The good news is its new administrator, Lisa Jackson, promises to do just that. Yesterday EPA announced its intention to revise rules for water discharges from power plants.

Second, we need a new clean water act. In the two decades since the CWA was last amended, much has changed, especially with the classes of pollutants Congress didn't consider back then. There’s also growing evidence that pollution from farms and other non-point sources poses significant health risks.

Here too is some encouraging news — in the works in the House transportation committee is the Sustainable Watershed Planning Act, which would create an oversight body to "[carry] out the policies and programs of the federal government affecting sustainable water resources management." 

And in June, a number of pollution and conservation bills aimed at cleaning up a host of waterways passed out of several Senate committees. (Details here, subscription req'd.)

In the meantime, what’s a poor water drinker to do? If your water comes from a municipal facility, I recommend using a good filter before drinking — check here and here for info. For those on well water, have your water checked and analyzed.

OK, that’s all for now. Time to jump into the shower and then dash off off to work. Speaking of showers, did you see the report on how we're exposed to potentially dangerous microbes when we bathe? Arrrgh!

Additional Resources

EPA's Introduction to the Clean Water Act