Our beaches, lakes and streams should be clean – so we can cool off with family and friends or simply enjoy the peace of their waters. That’s why we’re working to stop the billions of gallons of sewage and runoff pollution that can make people sick.
From the Great Lakes to Florida’s coast, Americans love to have fun in the water – whether it’s swimming at a favorite beach, floating or boating down a river or stream or fishing in a local creek.
Billions of gallons of sewage pollution
Yet pollution can ruin our enjoyment of America’s waterways. Each year, billions of gallons of sewage and runoff flow into our rivers, lakes and coastal waters. This pollution often contains bacteria, viruses, parasites that can make us sick.
In fact, this pathogen pollution in U.S. waters results in roughly 86 million cases of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, rashes and other illnesses each year, public health experts estimate. Millions more miss their chance to splash in the waves when this pollution closes beaches altogether.
Our research partners found that 55% of beaches tested in coastal waters and the Great Lakes had at least one day in 2022 where fecal bacteria levels posed a risk to swimmers.
Even in our nation’s capitol, the Potomac River, the Anacostia River, and Rock Creek remain off-limits for swimming.
Our leaders should stop sewage pollution
To make our waters safe for swimming, we need to repair our sewage systems and restore nature’s capacity to absorb stormwater before it brings polluted runoff into local rivers and streams. Communities from Portland (OR) to Boston have dramatically reduced their combined sewer overflows. Washington, DC is working on a set of infrastructure projects that will reduce its sewage pollution by 96 percent by 2030. Other communities have much farther to go.
Yet this progress will come to a grinding halt without money. Fixing our wastewater infrastructure will cost $630 billion over the next 20 years, based on what states have told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That’s why we’re calling on Congress to step up our nation’s investment in clean water, so that state and local governments can fix their sewage infrastructure and make our waterways safe for swimming. Ultimately, we’ll need Congress to ramp up that figure to at least $10 billion per year – about one-third of the total cost – so the job gets done.
We’re also calling on EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to keep these funds flowing – to ensure that every community – from rural towns to the District of Columbia have the resources to stop the sewage and make their waters safe for swimming.
Why Environment America can make our water clean
With the support of thousands of individual members, Environment America is working tirelessly to ensure that our favorite beaches, lakes, rivers and creeks are clean. Our advocates have won state and local protections and testified before Congress. Our lawyers have held water polluters accountable in court. Our research partners have documented pathogen pollution both locally and nationwide, and demonstrated how investments in better infrastructure result in cleaner water.
We know that Americans of all political stripes care about clean water. By harnessing that public support now, we can get our elected officials to come together and make our waters safe for swimming.
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John directs Environment America’s efforts to protect our rivers, lakes, streams and drinking water. John’s areas of expertise include lead and other toxic threats to drinking water, factory farms and agribusiness pollution, algal blooms, fracking and the federal Clean Water Act. He previously worked as a staff attorney for Alternatives for Community & Environment and Tobacco Control Resource Center. John lives in Brookline, Mass., with his family, where he enjoys cooking, running, playing tennis, chess and building sandcastles on the beach.
