Pollution threatens Connecticut's waterways 

On Oct. 11, the 35th anniversary of the  Clean Water Act, Environment Connecticut released a report detailing continued threats to Connecticut’s waterways. The report, “Troubled Waters,” found that during 2005 more than 74 percent of industrial and municipal facilities across Connecticut discharged more pollution into our waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow.

In addition to releasing our findings, we called on our representatives in Congress to work to reverse a Bush administration policy that has chipped away at protections for our waterways—especially smaller streams and wetlands—by defying years of precedent and narrowly defining the Clean Water Act to apply to only “navigable waterways.”

All of Connecticut’s congressional delegation has co-sponsored the Environment Connecticut-backed Clean Water Restoration Act, a bill that would overturn the Bush administration’s “no protection” policy for our waters.

“Failing to protect the small streams, ponds and wetlands that feed into our rivers and Long Island Sound is foolhardy,” said Environment Connecticut’s Piper Crowell. “Whatever goes in the stream ends up in the river. Pave over wetlands and you lose the wetlands’ ability to filter pollutants before they reach larger waterways.”

Troubled Waters

The goals of the Clean Water Act are to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into our waterways and make all waters safe for fishing and swimming. Unfortunately, our report showed that polluters are continuing to contaminate rivers, lakes and streams in Connecticut and across the nation.

“With so many facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that nearly half of America’s waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing. But we should be outraged,” said Crowell.
In Washington, D.C., our federal clean water advocate, Christy Leavitt, was joined by Rep. James Oberstar (Minn.) in releasing the report. An original co-sponsor of the Clean Water Act, Rep. Oberstar said, “Our responsibility to this generation and our legacy to future generations is to advance the cause of protecting the most precious of natural resources—clean water.” 

Decades after passage of the Clean Water Act, Connecticut’s waterways are still polluted.