Toxic-Free Environment Reports
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| 2010-02-10 | |
| For decades, the Clean Water Act protected the Nation’s surface water bodies from unregulated pollution and rescued them from the crisis status they were in during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now these vital protections are being lost. This report details the threat to our Nation’s waters by examining dozens of case studies, and highlights the urgent need for Congress to restore full Clean Water Act protections to our waters. | |
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| 2009-10-22 | |
| Industrial facilities continue to dump millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s rivers, streams, lakes and ocean waters each year—threatening both the environment and human health. | |
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| 2009-09-01 | |
| Since 1972, the Clean Water Act (CWA) has protected America’s lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands from unregulated pollution and destruction. Unfortunately, two recent Supreme Court decisions effectively gutted the CWA and left many of our nation’s waters unprotected. As a result of the SWANCC (2001) and Rapanos (2009) decisions, the CWA no longer applies to seasonal or intermittent streams lacking a continuous flow or to water bodies that lack a “substantial nexus” or “adjacency” to traditional navigable waters or major tributaries of traditional navigable waters. In Oregon, 53% of our streams currently threatened by potential development and toxic pollution. This is bad news for the Willamette River and all waters of the United States. | |
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| 2007-03-22 | |
| Industries across the United States pump billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into our air, land, and water each year, many of which can cause cancer and other severe health effects. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program provides Americans with the best information about toxic chemicals released in their communities. | |
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| 2005-12-12 | |
| The TRI program is under attack. The Bush Administration has issued a series of proposed changes over the past few years, some of which would weaken the program by reducing the amount or quality of information available to the public. In the fall of 2005, however, the Bush Administration proposed the most significant changes yet. | |
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| 2004-08-15 | |
| Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources are making the fish in our lakes, rivers, and streams unsafe to eat. Coal-fired power plants are by far the nation’s largest unregulated source of mercury emissions, contributing 41 percent of all U.S. mercury emissions. The mercury deposits in soil and surface waters, where bacteria convert it to a highly toxic form of mercury that bioaccumulates in fish, including popular sport and commercial fish. This report analyzes new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine the extent to which fish in the nation’s lakes are contaminated with mercury. | |
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| 2004-02-12 | |
| Superfund is the nation's preeminent law designed to make polluters pay to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites. Superfund makes polluters pay to clean up contaminated sites for which they are responsible and also assesses "polluter pays fees" that fill a trust fund intended to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites. In 1995, Superfund’s polluter pays fees expired. | |
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