Real Science for Real People:
Clean water? Still working on it
by Beth Ravit
The annual Friends of the Hackensack River Awards recognize individuals who are working to improve the health of our river. The ultimate challenge is to meet the criteria, as defined by the Clean Water Act, for the Hackensack to be declared a "fishable and swimmable" river. It has taken the U.S. the better part of the 20th century to acknowledge that our surface waters are not yet meeting acceptable levels of purity. Hackensack Riverkeeper's honorees are in the forefront of supporting work that will correct this problem.
Legislation to protect the quality of U.S. water was initiated in the Public Health Service Act of 1912, which created our country's first water quality standards. These standards evolved slowly over a 60-year period that preceded the passage of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972 and of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974. This environmental legislation was finally passed because two centuries of uncontrolled industrialization degraded rivers like the Hackensack so severely that they would catch fire and the majority of the natural biota was destroyed.
The Clean Water Act has jurisdiction over water quality in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and wetlands. The original SDWA required EPA to establish national standards for drinking water quality and required public water system operators to monitor and treat water to assure compliance with those standards. Although the quality of our surface waters has seen significant improvement since the environmental legislation of the 1970's, problems still remain.
Obvious sources of contamination were the first targets for clean up efforts. Federal, State, and local governments have spent almost $130 billion on wastewater treatment plants. Treatment plant upgrades and the regulation of pollution discharge through permit systems have reduced point-source discharges of raw sewage and industrial wastes. However, nonpoint-source pollution carried by urban storm water runoff has proven to be much more difficult to regulate or decrease. Although the Clean Water Act set goals for the U.S. surface water to be "fishable and swimmable" by 1983, almost 20 years after that deadline, roughly 40% of our surface water is still not suitable for fishing, swimming, or other designated uses.
The Hackensack River is much improved from the degradation of the 1970's, but in early 2001 was placed on American Rivers' list of the 20 Most Endangered Rivers. Over development and nonpoint source pollution continue to impede us from meeting the "fishable and swimmable" goal. Our Friends of the Hackensack River honorees are partnering with Hackensack Riverkeeper to raise public awareness of both the beauty of this river and the work that remains to be done to achieve the promise made by the Clean Water Act to the citizens of America.
Industrialization, over development, and point- and non-point source pollution are major obstacles toward achieving fishable and swimmable rivers, lakes, estuaries and wetlands.