Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
when only short-term effects are considered. Water-borne diseases are
uncommon, and parasites and disease-causing microorganisms have been
largely eliminated from the water that pours from taps. However, the
statement about water purity fails to consider the long-term effects of
chemical pollutants in the water. Certainly the small amounts of pesti-
cides and other industrial chemicals in the water are not lethal in the
short run, but their effect during a lifetime of ingesting them cannot be
benign. And it is not necessary. There is no necessity for agriculture to
use pesticides that end up in rivers (chapter 5) or for industry to pour
its poisonous liquid waste into rivers and inject them underground into
aquifers. Industry does it because it is an inexpensive way to dispose of
stuff they do not want, and thanks to decades of lobbying of our elected
representatives, it is perfectly legal.
The Hudson River
One of the most notorious examples of river pollution is the PCB con-
tamination in the Hudson River, an important source of drinking water
for a high percentage of the people in New York State.
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In 1947, General
Electric started using PCBs in one of its manufacturing plants on the
eastern shore of the river. It was not illegal at the time, although major
health and safety problems with PCBs had been detected eleven years
earlier. The chemicals are suspected human carcinogens and increase the
risk of birth defects in children born to women who eat fi sh from the
polluted Hudson River. They cause damage to the nervous system,
immune system, and reproductive system in adults. GE legally dumped
more than 1 million pounds of the chemicals into the Hudson River over
a thirty-year period.
In 1974 the EPA established that there were high levels of PCBs in
Hudson River fi sh and set the safety threshold at 5 ppm PCBs in fi sh for
human consumption. Two years later, Congress passed the Toxic Sub-
stance Control Act banning the manufacture of PCBs and prohibiting
their use except in totally enclosed systems, and the public was warned
about the dangers of eating fi sh from contaminated parts of the Hudson
River. All commercial fi sheries were closed. It was determined that GE
had caused the pollution. In 1983, 193 miles of the upper Hudson River
were added to the Superfund National Priority List. A year later the EPA
reduced the acceptable safety limit for PCBs from 5 ppm to 2 ppm.
In 1993, sediment in the river adjacent to a GE plant was found to
contain 20,000 ppm of PCBs. Blood tests of Hudson Valley residents in
1996 revealed elevated levels of PCBs in non-fi sh eaters, who presumably
