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For Immediate Release: Friday, November 6, 2009 Contact: Craig Hanson, P.E.
Phone: 286-5802
E-mail: street@cedar-rapids.org
DID YOU MISS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT?
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - October 24, 2009 - The anniversary of the Clean Water Act of October 18, 1972 came and went with little notice. The act established the goals of eliminating releases to water of high amounts of toxic substance, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by 1983. The Act governs discharges to "navigable waters." The term "waters" "includes only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water 'forming geographic features' that are described in ordinary parlance as 'streams[,] ... oceans, rivers, [and] lakes.'"
Do you remember the United States before the Act? Here are just a few items to remind us how it has meant so much to our county and more importantly the environment:
- Beach quality: The practice of ocean ships was to discharge oil laden bilge water near the coast or on the way into the harbor prior to the Act. The oil formed tar like balls that killed wildlife and ruined the beaches for guests. The white sands of the gulf coast and more specifically Padre Island, Texas were dotted with oil.
- Rivers on Fire: Pollution on some rivers got to the point that they caught on fire. On June 23, 1969 Cleveland's oily, contaminated Cuyahoga River caught fire. Flames climbed as high as five stories until fireboats brought it under control. The fire was attributed to wastes dumped into the river by the waterfront industries.
- Dredging and filling wetlands: The Mississippi Shipping Channel was dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers through the marshes east of New Orleans in the 1960s as a shortcut for deep-draft ships carrying Chinese textiles, Central American coffee or Middle Eastern crude oil to and from the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina's devastation has revived a decades-old debate over whether to undo the channel and bring back the wetlands. Environmentalists contend that since its construction, the channel has failed to live up to its promised economic benefits. More critical to them, it eroded its banks, allowed saltwater to kill off nearby marshes that helped control floods, and eventually carried Katrina's storm surge to their doors. Computer models by scientists at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center show the channel funneling Katrina's storm surge into a narrow bottleneck near Chalmette, dramatically increasing the surge's height and speed as it slammed through levees. The Act might have prevented this and decreased the damage of the hurricane.
- Reduced ocean abundance: The nation's annual commercial harvest of shrimp dropped from more than 6.3 million pounds before 1936 to just 10,000 pounds in 1965. (1)
- Major fish kills: 26 million fish died from contamination at Lake Thonotosassa, Florida in 1969 caused by discharges from food processing plants.
In recognition of these events, President Nixon signed the act. It was amended in 1977 and 1987.
Only Rain Down the Drain!
As storm water flows over driveways, lawns, and sidewalks, it picks up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants. Storm water can flow into a storm sewer system or directly to a lake, stream, river, wetland, or coastal water. Anything that enters a storm sewer system is discharged untreated into the water bodies we use for swimming, fishing, and providing drinking water. Do your part by "Only rain down the drain! "
End Notes:
Congressional Research Service. Oceans & Coastal Resources: A Briefing Book, Congressional Research Service Report 97-588 ENR, http://www.cnie.org/nle/crsrep orts/briefingbooks/oceans/appendb3.cfm
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