New Government Study Shows Many Toxic Chemicals Polluting the Columbia River

May 8th, 2012-- In a study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), scientists found that cities and towns along the Columbia River are discharging a wide range of personal care products, plasticizers, industry-related compounds, pharmaceuticals, PCBs, flame-retardants, pesticides, mercury, and estrogenic compounds. USGS tested treated wastewater bound for the Columbia River in nine cities in Oregon and Washington: Wenatchee, Richland, Umatilla, The Dalles, Hood River, Portland, Vancouver, St. Helens, and Longview. The reconnaissance study found that these cities’ wastewater treatment plants are discharging a myriad of toxic pollutants every day, despite the fact that no regular monitoring is required. The study also found a broad spectrum of chemicals entering the Columbia from polluted stormwater runoff.

“We have no idea how much these hundreds of toxins are affecting our children who swim in the river or our families who eat the fish,” explained Brett VandenHeuvel, Executive Director of Columbia Riverkeeper. “This study highlights the chemical soup we dump into the Columbia everyday. Now it is imperative to safeguard our children by better regulation of pollution.”

The USGS study found that 53 percent of the pollutants tested for were present in water leaving the nine cities’ wastewater treatment plants. Many of these pollutants accumulate in the food chain, such as mercury and PCBs. Other pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, impact the health of salmonids and other fish during sensitive life stages. USGS also found that 58 percent of the 195 compounds tested for were present in urban stormwater runoff, including PCBs, PBDEs, organochlorine compounds, hydrocarbon byproducts, pesticides, trace elements, mercury, and oil and grease. By contrast, smaller cities in Oregon and Washington, such as Hood River and The Dalles, are not required to test for pollution in stormwater entering the Columbia. For larger cities, such as Portland and Vancouver, the states only require that cities monitor for a handful of the most common pollutants, several times per year.

“We’re not talking about a theoretical problem,” explained VandenHeuvel. “The Departments of Health in Oregon and Washington have fish advisories all over the Columbia River and other rivers that tell people to limit how much fish they eat because of toxic pollution, or for women and children not to eat the fish at all. This most recent study demonstrates that we’re not doing enough to keep toxic pollution out of the Columbia and off of our dinner plates.”

The USGS study is the latest in a long-line of government, academic, and private sector studies showing a complex mixture of toxic pollution entering the Columbia River every day, as well as studies demonstrating the significant negative impacts these pollutants are having on fish, wildlife, and people that regularly eat locally caught fish.

“We can take steps today to make our cities more livable with green infrastructure that reduces the amount of polluted stormwater washing into the Columbia,” VandenHeuvel stated. “We can also make personal choices about what we buy and what gets washed down the drain.”

To view the results of the study, visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2012/5068/.