Pollution Peril at Coasts, Estuaries Growing, Congress Research Finds

America’s estuaries and coastal waters are being increasingly polluted by human waste and industrial toxic substances, and they will get even dirtier without a new cleanup strategy, a congressional study said Tuesday.

“Many of these waters now contain high levels of organic chemicals, metals and disease-causing organisms,” the Office of Technology Assessment reported.

The study painted a grim picture for the nation’s shores and huge estuaries like Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound, where pollution already has cut into recreation and fishery revenues.

The research agency said that across the nation more than 1,300 major industrial facilities and 500 municipal sewage treatment plants discharge directly into estuaries, with another 70 sewage plants and 15 industrial facilities pumping their effluent into coastal waters.

Thousands more facilities discharge into rivers flowing to estuaries and coastal waters, and increasingly destructive pollution from other sources is delivered by runoff from city streets and farmland, it said.

Bacteria, viruses and parasites in sewage “can contaminate water and fish, resulting in direct risks to human health, such as outbreaks of hepatitis and gastroenteritis,” the study said.

Commercial harvesting in about a third of the nation’s productive shellfish areas has been banned or partially restricted because of contamination, it said.

The study called for more enforcement efforts and greater spending on waste treatment facilities.