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This success is due not to sensational reports with catchy titles that ignore these achievements but to the hard work of a host of water resource management agencies (both private and public). One of those agencies is the Delaware River Basin Commission.
Long before there was an EPA, or a federal Clean Water Act, or even an environmental movement, the Commission had a working vision to restore life to the Delaware, at that time (the early 1960s) one of America's most fouled rivers.
Blazing a new trail in water pollution abatement, the Commission adopted in 1967 the most comprehensive water quality standards of any interstate river basin in the nation. The standards were tied to an innovative wasteload allocation program that factored in the tidal Delaware River's capacity to assimilate waste.
A year later, the Commission adopted regulations for implementing and enforcing the standards, prompting the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration to observe: "This is the only place in the country where such a procedure is being followed. Hopefully, it will provide a model for other regulatory agencies." Echoed Stewart Udall, then U.S. Interior Secretary: "Only the Delaware among the nation's river basins is moving into high gear in its program to combat water pollution."
The Commission did not rest on its laurels. Recognizing that toxic substances in the tidal Delaware were a problem based on Commission studies of riverbed sediments and fish tissue, it began in 1989 to look for solutions through science.
Draft Regulations were developed with scientific and policy input from other government regulatory agencies, academia, industry, public health interests, municipal governments, agriculture, fish and wildlife agencies, and environmental advocacy groups. Numerous public briefings and public hearings were held by the Commission on the draft proposal. Interestingly, NJPIRG never testified or commented during the seven-year process.
On October 23, 1996 the regulations were adopted by the Commission. They take effect on January 1, 1997.
The regulations set uniform water quality criteria for toxic pollutants for the 85-mile reach of the Delaware from the head of tide at Trenton, N.J., downstream to the Delaware Bay, including tidal portions of tributary streams. The criteria are designed to protect human health and aquatic life. A wasteload allocation program, similar to one that set national precedent in the 1960s, limits the amount of toxic pollutants that can be discharged by 83 riverbank wastewater treatment plants in order to meet the criteria.
But back to the "Dishonorable Discharge" report for a moment.
In it, NJPIRG lists the top ten toxic chemicals that were discharged to the Delaware River between 1990 and 1994. It doesn't mention that over 97 percent of these chemicals are not carcinogenic, nor substances that affect reproduction.
The report also ranks United States waterways based on their toxic loadings -- the amounts of toxic pollutants being discharged to the water body. In one instance, the Pacific Ocean is pitted against Wards Cove, Ark. No consideration is given by NJPIRG to the Pacific's vast water volume, compared to Wards Cove, and thus the ocean's much greater ability to assimilate and detoxify many of the receiving chemicals.
Based on sheer volume of toxic loadings, the Pacific Ocean beats out Wards Cove.
(Christopher Roberts is the Commission's public information officer)
Contact: Christopher Roberts 609-883-9500 ext. 205
croberts@drbc.state.nj.us
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