Is the Clean Water Act still being violated?
By: Safia Malin
The accessibility of clean water is more than just a legal right; it is a fundamental human right. The Clean Water Act, that was originally passed in 1948 but is more commonly known for the amendments added in 1972, laid out concrete rules that essentially ban individuals and states from dumping harmful toxins and waste into public water bodies, unless they had a permit to do so. One massive objective of this act was, of course, to maintain the quality of water in the United States.
While the Clean Water Act (from now on CWA) has made for some very significant improvements in the quality of water, there are still many states who continue to violate it. And more importantly, it is average everyday people who suffer the consequences, instead of the violators.
The Animas River (pictured above), in Durango, Colorado, became the center of headlines after some very troubling images of the pollution hit the internet. On August 5, EPA contractors working on a mine that has been inactive since 1920 sent 3 million gallons of toxic mining waste down over 100 miles of the Animas River. Not only do people in the area rely on the river as their water source, but plenty of wildlife do as well. The fish present in the river did not automatically die from the exposure to the chemicals, but their food source was threatened. This contamination has adverse long term effects. Any new rainfall or addition to the current levels of water in the river, has the potential of stirring up sediments/waste at the bottom of the river and contaminating everything. The community surrounding the Animas River will be dealing with those effects more frequently, as it has a personal effect on them.
Rhode Island has also recently come into some trouble with The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency. In September 2015, Rhode Island proposed a new plan that would span over 20 years and intended to design more efficient ways to keep storm water separate from other bodies of water. In the process, Rhode Island officials admitted that they had previously allowed the two waters to mix. Rhode Island faces monetary fines, among other penalties. The state is also not taking advantage of resources given to them by the EPA in order to cultivate better drinking water sources.
In Wisconsin, the locals are taking matters into their own hands. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was accused of doing a poor job of actually implementing the specific rules of the CWA. Again, a major contributor to the polluting of water in Wisconsin is the runoff from storm water into other sources. Phosphorus has also been very detrimental to the state. Phosphorus is commonly found in fertilizer and can kill fish living in bodies of water. The phosphorus leaks into other sources of water that are often used for consumption. The situation in Wisconsin escalated when citizens petitioned the EPA, on October 20, 2015, in an effort to bring attention to the state’s violations.
The Monongahela River of Pennsylvania is also being contaminated, according to Fair Shake, a conservation group. Fair Shake is claiming that a water treatment company working at an abandoned mine sight near the river is dumping acid water mine drainage into a tributary of the Monongahela River. The discharge is apparently so toxic that it is affecting animals native to those waters as well as drinking water sources.
From the Animas river in Colorado, to the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania, we are becoming accustomed to hearing about major water pollution in our country. There are several common trends among all of these examples. These violations seemed to have been going on for the span of several years without punishment. And interestingly enough, average citizens have been the ones to come together to bring national awareness and attention to local violations. It is time for us to tackle these issues head-on and place more intensive preventions and regulations that protect our communities from being taken advantage of.
