State Water Board Takes Action on 1,700 Severely Polluted Waterways
Dan Bacher
Calitics
08/04/2010
New List Reveals Few Californians Enjoy "Fishable, Swimmable, Drinkable" Waterways
(Sacramento, CA) Today, the State Water Resources Control Board formally adopted the 2008/2010 303(d) List, which shows that more than 1,700 California beaches, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters are severely polluted, or "impaired." According to the new list, more than 90% of Californians live within 10 miles of a severely polluted waterway.
The State Water Board is required to create a list of seriously polluted water bodies every two years, known as the "303(d) List," after Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The List is compiled based on water quality monitoring data that show which waters are too polluted for activities that Californians used to be able to enjoy, such as fishing, swimming, boating or surfing.
Now that the new list has been adopted, the Regional Water Boards will begin the
process of developing and implementing reduced loads of pollutants designed to lead to healthier and cleaner waterways.
"The new list reflects a staggering water pollution problem in California," says Linda Sheehan, Executive Director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. "We applaud the State Water Board's good work mapping polluted waterways and adopting this list. Now we can turn to the work of cleaning up polluted waters so that they are once more fishable, swimmable and drinkable."
There were 1,464 new water body-pollutant listings proposed for adoption, a 64% increase from the number of listings in 2006, which brings the total to 3,507 listings. This number reflects the number of segments of a water body that are impaired (e.g., the mouth of a river vs. a downstream area) combined with the number of pollutants that cause impairment.
