Report: South Platte most polluted waterway in Colorado
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 22 March 2012 21:16
- Written by Dena Rosenberry
Fishing the South Platte River. Courtesy of Jon Kleis, OutThereColorado.com
Associated Press
DENVER — An environmental group says the South Platte River is the most polluted waterway in Colorado.
Environment Colorado released a report Thursday based on Environmental Protection Agency statistics from 2010. The group says that industrial facilities released more than 700,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into Colorado rivers that year, with a third ending up in the South Platte.
The chemicals include benzene, mercury and arsenic.
The group says that nearly 70 percent of the state's rivers and streams may not be protected under the federal Clean Water Act and it wants the Obama administration to take steps to clarify that the law applies to all waterways.
Read the full news release.
Read the full report, " Wasting Our Waterways 2012: Toxic Industrial Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act."
(No matter how bad Colorado is, one look at the map at the beginning of the report will make you glad you live here and not in the East.)
