Toxic Commonwealth

With over 15 million pounds of toxins dumped into the Commonwealth's waterways, Virginia "ranks" among the worst states for pollution from industrial plants posing a threat to human health and the environment. While we all think of southwest Virginia as being pristine wilderness, the New River ranked #3 in the nation for toxic discharges with 12,529,948 pounds purposely dumped in the water. The Roanoke River came in at #15 in the nation with 2,762,330 pounds of toxic discharges. Sadly, the facts and figures about toxic discharges don't tell the whole story - industrial facilities must report Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) only if they exceed certain limits. Smaller plants may never report anything, yet their discharges get stirred into the witches' brew that has become our streams, lakes, and rivers.

The major contributor of toxins in the New River is the Radford Army Ammunition Plant which dumps over 12,000,000 pounds of toxins into the water. That's the second highest toxin discharge in the nation.  Bringing death to our hometowns....

Nationwide, the largest category of releases are nitrates which may be toxic "particularly to infants consuming formula made with nitrate-laden drinking water...." And, there are many other sources of nitrates (agricultural runoff, over application of lawn fertilizers, etc.) that are NOT included in the TRI.

Of course the problem isn't only found in the Toxic Commonwealth (but unfortunately we are one of the big uglies) but in every state from sea to shining sea:

• Pollution from just five states—Indiana, Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, and Georgia—accounted for nearly forty percent of the total amount of pollution dumped into our waterways in 2010
• Food and beverage manufacturing (slaughterhouses, rendering plants, etc.), primary metals manufacturing, chemical plants, and petroleum refineries were some of the largest polluters. AK Steel dumped the most toxic pollution—nearly 30 million pounds—into our waterways in 2010.
• In 2010, industries discharged approximately 1.5 million pounds of cancer-causing chemicals, like arsenic, chromium, and benzene, into America’s waterways. Nevada’s Burns Creek received the largest volume of carcinogens in 2010, while neighboring Mill Creek placed third.
• Nitrates accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total volume of discharges to waterways reported in 2010. Nitrates are toxic, particularly to infants consuming formula made with nitrate-laden drinking water, who may be susceptible to methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby” syndrome, a disease that reducesthe ability of blood to carry oxygen throughout the body.

So, I guess the question is: are the governor, the General Assembly, and representatives like Bob Goodlatte and Morgan Griffith looking out for the people of Virginia or for the profits of their big donors? You decide. But, don't drink the water... or swim in it either!

For more information visit Environment America and read their report, Wasting Our Waterways 2012 Toxic Industrial Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act.

Troubled waters

A new report (PDF file) entitled "Wasting Our Waterways: Toxic Industrial Pollution and the Unfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act" by Environment America says Virginia's waterways are the second dirtiest in the United States. The report says Virginia had more than 18 million pounds of toxic chemicals released into its waterways, second only to Indiana. The New River (NC, VA, WV) is the worst in the Commonwealth and second worst in the entire nation with 14,090,633 pounds of total discharges. Ranking second in the state (31st in the nation) is the James River with 1,686,939 pounds. The Roanoke River also made the nation's top dirty 50 in total discharges. The discharge numbers are from 2007 when Environment America says more than 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into 1,900 waterways.

Here at CCC I've previously posted about water quality issues with Shenandoah Valley rivers, most notably trash and animal/human wastes in our streams. When you consider the trash, the mostly unseen mix of chemicals, the bacteria, the nutrients, and the sediment/run-off that goes into our waterways it is pretty scary for anybody who wants to swim, canoe, fish, or use our precious water resources. W.C. Fields only touched on one irrelevant aspect of water quality in his famous quote about why he doesn't drink water. W.C., there are lots of other reasons!

Tom Toles' cartoon in the Washington Post November 13, 2009 sums it up pretty well.