Environment Virginia Research & Policy Center

Executive Summary

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. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), toxic discharges from industrial facilities are responsible for polluting more than 17,000 miles of rivers and about 210,000 acres of lakes, ponds and estuaries nationwide.

To curb this massive release of toxic chemicals into our nation’s water, we must step up Clean Water Act protections for our waterways and require polluters to reduce their use of toxic chemicals.

Industrial facilities dumped 206 million pounds of toxic chemicals into American waterways in 2012, according to reports from those facilities to the national Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). (See Table ES-1 and Figure ES-1.)

• Our nation’s iconic waterways are still threatened by toxic pollution – with polluters discharging chemicals into the following watersheds: Great Lakes (8.39 million pounds), Chesapeake Bay (3.23 million pounds), Upper Mississippi River (16.9 million pounds), and Puget Sound (578,000 pounds), among other national treasures. (See Figure ES-2.)
• Polluters released toxic chemicals to 850 local watersheds across the country. Indiana led the nation in total volume of toxic releases to waterways, with more than 17 million pounds of discharges from industrial facilities, followed by Texas and Louisiana. The top 10 states for toxic industrial releases to waterways were the same as in 2010. (See Table ES-2.)
• Watersheds receiving the highest volumes of toxic pollution were the Lower Ohio River-Little Pigeon River (Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky), the Upper New River (Virginia) and the Middle Savannah River (Georgia and South Carolina). (See Table ES-3.)

Table ES-1. Industrial Toxic Releases by Watershed Region

Watershed Region
Total Pounds Released
Toxicity Weighted Pounds

Texas-Gulf

13,211,652

33,935,900

South Atlantic-Gulf

37,715,213

4,472,145

Lower Mississippi River

13,933,267

3,473,041

Pacific Northwest

6,472,813

1,292,540

Great Basin

1,275,484

1,070,625

Tennessee River

6,261,817

874,903

Arkansas-White-Red Rivers

13,005,273

611,570

Ohio River

43,103,836

496,583

Great Lakes

8,402,059

220,180

Souris-Red-Rainy Rivers

138,939

186,473

Upper Mississippi River

16,863,867

159,216

Mid Atlantic

23,690,915

131,270

Missouri River

14,878,771

105,362

Hawaii

435,662

40,131

New England

3,336,235

34,402

California

2,358,874

33,280

Upper Colorado River

22,143

2,038

Alaska

570,475

1,958

Lower Colorado River

3,632

1,906

Rio Grande River

35,857

333

Several of these watershed regions contain multiple outlets to the ocean. Toxics released in these areas do not all follow the same path to the sea.                                                                                      

Figure ES-1. Industrial Discharges of Toxic Chemicals to Waterways by Watershed Region

Table ES-2. Top 10 States for Toxic Releases to Water in 2012

State

Total Releases (lbs.)

Indiana

17,761,310

Texas

16,476,093

Louisiana

12,618,616

Alabama

12,287,252

Virginia

11,821,961

Nebraska

10,506,483

Pennsylvania

10,470,231

Georgia

10,132,268

North Carolina

8,897,062

Ohio

7,567,720

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure ES-2. Industrial Discharges of Toxic Chemicals to Nationally Iconic Watersheds