Environmental Issues: Water

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All Documents in Water Tagged water pollution

Cleaning Up the Anacostia River
After more than a century of abuse, plans are being made to bring Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia River back to life.
Overview

After more than a century of abuse, plans are being made to bring Washington, D.C.'s "Forgotten River" back to life.

Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms
Overview

Facts and figures about pollution from factory farms, which produce staggering amounts of animal wastes that pollute the environment and do serious harm to humans, fish and ecosystems.

Out of the Gutter
Reducing Polluted Runoff in the District of Columbia
Report

Every time it rains, Washington, D.C., like most major cities, is plagued by stormwater runoff, which has gravely contaminated the city's three major rivers. To clean up the pollution, the city's Water and Sewer Authority is relying on costly and outdated stormwater management practices. In this July 2002 report, NRDC recommends instead that WASA adopt low-impact development, as well as other measures to encourage water conservation and the protection of sensitive lands. 

Pollution from Giant Livestock Farms Threatens Public Health
Waste lagoons and manure sprayfields -- two widespread and environmentally hazardous technologies -- are poorly regulated.
News

Factory farms -- giant livestock farms that house thousands of cows, chickens or pigs -- produce staggering amounts of animal wastes. These wastes are often stored and used in ways that expose people to dangerous bacteria, toxic gases and other hazardous substances, and punish the natural environment.

How to Clean Up Our Water
Ten Simple Ways You Can Help Reduce Pollution and Runoff
Guide

Sewage overflows and runoff from farms and city streets close thousands of miles of beaches each year and poison our food supply and drinking water. The good news is that there are many things you can do to help. Here are 10 simple actions to help stem the tide of polluted runoff -- and clean up and conserve our waters.

Rooftops to Rivers
Green Strategies for Controlling Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows
Report

This May 2006 report is a policy guide for decision makers looking to implement green stormwater strategies to stop water pollution at its source. It includes nine case studies of cities that have successfully used green infrastructure techniques to reduce runoff and combined sewer overflow (CSO) pollution to create a healthier urban environment.

Missing Protection
Polluting the Mississippi River Basin's Small Streams and Wetlands
Report

Our nation's rivers, streams, and small bodies of water are in danger because of recent interpretations of the Clean Water Act that suggest that many waters historically protected from pollution can now be polluted or destroyed without a permitting process to limit the environmental impact of discharges into the waters. This October 2008 issue paper discusses the changes in relation to the problem of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin.

Historic Hudson River Cleanup to Begin After Years of Delay, But Will GE Finish the Job?
Under the EPA's unusual agreement with General Electric, the company could escape full responsibility for cleaning up the toxic mess it made in the Hudson River.
History

Under the EPA's unusual agreement with General Electric, the company could escape full responsibility for cleaning up the toxic mess it made in the Hudson River.

Keeping Our Waters Clean in the Monterey Bay Region
How Smaller Communities Can Prevent Toxic Runoff
Fact Sheet

Stormwater runoff is a leading source of coastal pollution in California, damaging the environment and threatening public health. NRDC developed a three-part strategy of prevention, monitoring and enforcement that can help smaller and midsized cities deal with this toxic stormwater runoff before it pollutes local waterways and puts public health at risk. This effective and straightforward plan has already been adopted, and once fully implemented, will successfully manage runoff in coastal communities along the Monterey Peninsula in California.

Morro Bay-Cayucos Sewage Treatment Plant and Sea Otter Habitat
Fact Sheet

The Morro Bay/Cayucos sewage plant in California has dumped pollutants into the ocean for more than two decades -- directly into bay waters that are a hotspot for deaths among the threatened California sea otter.  Officials at the Morro Bay sewage plant do not intend to complete an upgrade to meet basic federal standards until March 2014, even as the plant's own documents show that a faster, more efficient, less expensive upgrade is possible.

Pollution Unchecked: A Case Study of Greene County, Pennsylvania
Report

Southwestern Pennsylvania's Greene County suffers from serious air and water pollution, and cancer rates in the predominantly low-income Appalachian community are substantially higher than state and national averages. This December 2004 report finds that despite the obvious health risks county residents face, state and federal officials have made no significant effort to collect data on possible health effects linked to pollution in Greene County.

Swimming in Sewage
The Growing Problem of Sewage Pollution and How the Bush Administration Is Putting Our Health and Environment at Risk
Report

This February 2004 report from NRDC and the Environmental Integrity Project describes the emerging environmental and public health crisis resulting from our nation's failure to effectively treat sewage, presents seven case studies from around the country that illustrate how exposure to sewage pollution has killed or seriously injured people and harmed local economies, and recommends solutions to America's sewage problem.

Clean Water at Risk: An Assessment of Bush Administration Water Protection Rollbacks
Report

An October 2002 NRDC report -- issued on the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Clean Water Act -- that assesses the impact this landmark environmental law has had on the safety and environmental health of the nation’s waterways and documents the Bush administration's sustained attack on clean water protections.

Stormwater Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution
Report

This report documents some of the most effective strategies being employed by communities around the country to control urban runoff pollution, which is among the top sources of water contamination today. The collection of 100 case studies is intended to serve as a guide for local decisionmakers, municipal officials, and environmental activists; it is also a resource for citizens concerned about the quality of their local environment.

Cesspools of Shame
How Factory Farm Lagoons and Sprayfields Threaten Environmental and Public Health
Report

This July 2001 report from NRDC and the Clean Water Network documents how animal waste from factory farms threatens human health and our nation's rivers. Most factory farms store animal waste in open lagoons as large as several football fields. Lagoons routinely burst, sending millions of gallons of manure into waterways and spreading microbes that can cause gastroenteritis, fevers, kidney failure, and death.

California's Contaminated Groundwater
Is the State Minding the Store?
Report

Despite the importance of groundwater to its population and economy -- and ample evidence of dangerous groundwater-contamination problems that will be expensive to address -- California does not effectively monitor or protect its groundwater supplies. This April 2001 report documents the lapses in the state's data gathering, monitoring, and protection of this vital resource, and makes recommendations for reforms.

Urban Stormwater Solutions
News

Cities, developers, corporations and schools are beginning to find new ways of reducing stormwater pollution, as illustrated in these case studies.

Cost-effective Pollution Prevention in an Industrial Setting
An unlikely partnership between environmentalists and Dow Chemical achieves major pollution reductions.
News

An unlikely partnership between environmentalists and Dow Chemical achieves major pollution reductions.

Environmentalists and Dow: Chemical Reduction
Interview

Between 1996 and early 1999, NRDC worked on a groundbreaking project with a truly unlikely partner: Dow Chemical. The project tested the idea of pollution prevention -- improving the manufacturing process to stop pollution before it's created -- at one of the largest chemical manufacturing plants in the United States. What was it like for an environmentalist to work with Dow Chemical? NRDC scientist Linda Greer, who headed the project for NRDC, tells all.

Preventing Industrial Pollution at its Source
A Final Report of the Michigan Source Reduction Initiative
Report

This report details a project undertaken by NRDC, Dow Chemical, and a group of five community activists to reduce waste and emissions at Dow's Midland, Michigan, chemical manufacturing plant. The project, begun in late 1996 and completed in April 1999, aimed to achieve reductions in pollution emission through pollution prevention -- manufacturing process improvements that decrease waste before it is generated.

America's Animal Factories
How States Fail to Prevent Pollution from Livestock Waste
Report

A report examining the environmental and health consequences of pollution from industrial livestock farms in 30 states, as well as the widely varying efforts to curtail it.

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