Toxic runoff from agriculture, industry and suburban lawns is making drinking water unsafe, destroying the fishing industry and creating mutant fish and animals. The Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, but, according to the New York Times, 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.
A recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS.gov) study found an alarming rate of white sucker fish with prominent tumors in several of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan tributaries. The three-year study looked at White Sucker tumor prevalence in the Sheboygan River and Milwaukee Estuary, which have both been listed as “Areas of Concern (AOC)” under the International Joint Commission Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada. “There was an elevated prevalence of skin and liver tumors on fish from both Areas of Concern as well as one of the non-Areas of Concern,” said Vicki Blazer, USGS Research Fish Biologist and lead author of the study. Because white suckers, also called mullet, eat from the sediment on river bottoms, their overall health is considered an indicator of the environmental degradation within an ecosystem.
An estimated 19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. That figure does not include illnesses caused by other chemicals and toxins.
The Safe Drinking Water Act only regulates 91 contaminants. The problem is that more than 80,000 chemicals are used in the U.S. How many of these chemicals, and at what levels, end up in the water supply is not known, because no one is testing and measuring these unregulated chemicals in drinking water.
