Pollution Down, Health Up In Marine Ecosystems
August 1, 2008
This news post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
A 20-year-long study done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has reported some good news: levels of pesticides and industrial chemicals in U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes are decreasing.
Mussel Watch, the longest-running continuous contaminant monitoring study, began in 1986. Scientists measure contaminant levels in sediment and in the fatty tissue of mussels and oysters from over 300 locations—from the Great Lakes to the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaskan estuaries. They test for 140 different chemicals, and have discovered that, in general, chemical concentrations in these locations have decreased over the last two decades. In particular, the study records decreasing concentrations of DDT and PCBs.
Gunnar Lauenstein, lead scientist for the study, explained that while every area tested had a different story—in some places pollution levels rose, in some places they fell—the overall statistical evidence demonstrates a national decrease in contaminant concentrations. The broad time frame of this study shows that these concentrations continue to fall even today, decades after the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (better known as the Clean Water Act) was created in the 1970s. One of that Act’s primary goals is to prevent water pollution. Mussel Watch indicates advancement toward that goal.
However, its results also demonstrate no decrease in water pollution from oil-based compounds related to motor vehicle and shipping activities.
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One Response to “Pollution Down, Health Up In Marine Ecosystems”
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It seems to me logical that PCB and DDT concentrations are lower since they can not be used any longer. But what about the dead zones, due to eutrophication?
This is partly caused by the fact that EPA never implemented the CWA as it was intended and promised to the American public, since EPA does not consider nitrogenous waste (urine and protein) causing pollution. This waste not only, like fecal waste, exerts an oxygen demand, but also is a fertilizer for algae and aquatic plant growth, causing eutrophication and eventually dead zones.
The reason EPA ignored this pollution is caused by a worldwide incorrect applied pollution test that EPA used to base its NPDES discharge permits on.
Although EPA in 1984 acknowledged this incorrect use, in stead of correcting the test, it allowed an alternative test and now officially ignored this type of pollution and by doing so lowered the goal of the CWA from 100% treatment to a measly 35% treatment, without notifying Congress.
Other problems caused by this incorrect applied test are that we do not know the real performance of a sewage treatment plants and have no idea what the effluent waste loading is on receiving water bodies, besides the possibility that such plants are designed to treat the wrong waste in sewage.
Want to know more? Visit http://www.petermaier.net and read the description of this test (BOD) in the Technical PDF section.