Chances are the streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries in your area are more polluted than you thought. In fact, the quality of the nation's water bodies has declined in the past decade. The trouble with water is that it mostly looks okay to the naked eye. The only visible signs of trouble are dead fish, raw sewage, and a horrible smelling toxic spill.
Those were the kinds of problems that won passage of the Clean Water Act 26 years ago. Today's troubles are less obvious, but equally important. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the leading pollutants are sediment, nutrients (phosphorous and nitrogen), bacteria, pesticides, habitat alterations and metals. The leading source, by far, is agriculture. Sewage plants, urban runoff, industry and physically altering the stream are other, relatively equal, causes.
305(b) Report: The best place to start is with your state's 305(b) report. These are issued every other year and are required under the Clean Water Act. Whatever agency that oversees water pollution will have it. These are chock-full of statistics. Most helpful are each state's assessment of its water problems and the list of impaired rivers and streams.
Every two years, the EPA compiles the state reports into the national Water Quality Inventory as a report to Congress. These show how your state stacks up against others. They are always two years behind. In May 1998 the EPA released the 1996 report. To obtain copies, call Barry Bergen at (202) 260-7060.
One caveat: 305(b) reports are self-reported by the states, and each state measures water quality a bit differently.
EPA Information: Two places for basic water information are the EPA Water site: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/ and the EPA Watershed Indicators http://www.epa.gov/surf/wil. You can search for the watershed covering your area. Each one has a laundry list of water quality measures, including toxic discharges, fish consumption advisories, and agricultural runoff.
NPDES Discharge Violations: The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System requires permits and reporting of discharges from "point sources," which can be factories and municipal waste treatment systems. Each discharger is given a limit for pollutants released to rivers and other water bodies. They are supposed to report when the discharge exceeds the limit. Studies have shown that one-fifth of the dischargers routinely violate their limits. See "Dirty Water Scoundrels" from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group at http://www/pirg.org.
States usually put violations into a database and send that to the EPA. For the past decade, the EPA has maintained its data in a cumbersome, hierarchical format - though the database is finally being updated. States have had to use the same format and often go to the EPA to retrieve their own data. You can try to get your state's data in spreadsheet format, which lets you easily find violations. You can also request the data directly from the EPA. The agency has a lot of data available through its Web site, but NPDES data was not in an obvious place. The best Web site is the Right-to-Know Network's at www.rtk.net/www/data/pcs_comp.html, though the data seem to be out of date.
Water Tests: The state environmental agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey and other environmental agencies continually monitor certain streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries. The test results for nutrients, bacteria and sedimentation will help you see how much non-point sources affect your rivers. Non-point sources include fertilizer and manure washed off farm fields and dirt and chemicals washed out of construction areas.
State data is available either from the states or from the EPA. The STORET system is EPA's test repository (http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/STORET/). Again, it's a bit arcane. You can submit a request for specific data. Or you can call STORET at (800) 424-9067 and request a FTP transfer of data.
The USGS has collected data for many years from 679 sites around the country. You can buy a CD-Rom of the testing results from the USGS in Reston, Va., for $42. (703) 648-5921. Code is DDS-37.
The USGS has recently finished studies of the first 20 of 59 areas of the country. These encompass about two-thirds of the population. Known as the National Water-Quality Assessment, this program provides the first uniform measures for all areas. See the NAWQA Web site: http://www.ruares.er.usgs.gov/nawqa/studyu.html. The USGS wants to share these studies and will make the scientists available for explanations. They are very knowledgeable.
Drinking Water: About half of public drinking water comes from rivers. Municipal systems treat the water with varying chemicals. However, a number of pesticides make it through because there are no limits for them in drinking water. The Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org), has done several excellent studies of pesticides and nitrates in drinking water. (Nitrate can cause blue-baby syndrome). The Working Group can also provide custom analyses of EPA data and violations by public water systems.
Toxic Release Inventory: Though all substances don't have to be reported, this data can still give a picture of what's being released into your rivers. Some of the chemicals discharged are perfectly legal, though potential health threats. The Environmental Working Group analyzed TRI data and found the water bodies receiving the most cancer-causing chemicals. See "Dishonorable Discharge."
Fish Consumption Advisories: In 1996, 2,193 advisories against eating fish caught in certain rivers were in effect. For more information see http://www.epa.gov/OST/fishadvice.
Reports you can't do without
President Clinton's "Clean Water Action Plan:" The $2.3 billion, five-year cleanup plan now being considered by Congress and hammered out by the EPA. Call (202) 260-7060.
"A Prescription for Clean Water: How to Meet the Goals of the Clean Water Act." Clean Water Network. (202) 289-2395 http://www.cwn.org.
Penny Loeb can be readed at (202) 955-2640 or by email at ploeb@usnews.com