In its recent publication, “Data on Mercury in Water, Bed Sediment, and Fish from Streams Across the United States, 1998–2005,” (pdf) the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a division of the Department of the Interior (DOI), released information related to mercury contamination in 291 streams and rivers across the country.
The USGS study’s
West Virginia has recently increased the amount of allowable mercury pollution in the states lakes, rivers, and waterways. West Virginia’s new regulations are even less stringent than the minimal national standard. As Seattle University School of Law Associate Professor Catherine O’Neill explains, this is a bad decision based on faulty logic.
Polluted waterways are a problem