Ohio River getting bad press about pollution. Not good for Pittsburgh's reputation. (Indiana: how much, live)

[gg]

Study: Ohio River has most industrial pollutants among major U.S. rivers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Shame we just will never really shake this stuff! Will Pittsburgh ever be looked at as someplace green or progressive and updated with such press? Why do we have to pollute the heck out of our water around here? How do companies continually get away with this? Don't people drink from the Ohio? That is comforting to know.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Unfortunately with all the negative stigmas this city has shook off in the past decade this appears to be one they cannot shake.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Study: Ohio River has most industrial pollutants among major U.S. rivers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Shame we just will never really shake this stuff! Will Pittsburgh ever be looked at as someplace green or progressive and updated with such press? Why do we have to pollute the heck out of our water around here? How do companies continually get away with this? Don't people drink from the Ohio? That is comforting to know.

Where do you think they measured that? Pittsburgh? Cincy? Where it runs into the Mississippi? You'd think that by their definitions that the Mississppi would have >= the pollutants of the Ohio ("All its tributaries" should apply to the Mississippi too, right?). Not questioning that the Ohio still needs work, just how they're defining things here.

[hornet67]

The Ohio River is 981 miles long, the vast majority of which are outside Pennsylvania. I cannot find what the actual mileage is in Pennsylvania, but the river flows, of course, all the way to the Mississippi at Cairo, IL.
How much of this pollution actually emanates from the Pittsburgh or Western PA. area?
Certainly, the pollution from the old mills along the riiver in Beaver County, such as J&L Steel, is long gone. I'm not disputing the article, neccessarily, but is this area being tarred with a broad brush?
Who are the specific polluters around here?

[barneyg]

Here is the full report (http://www.pennenvironment.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Wasting%20Our%20Waterways%20PA.pdf - broken link). Table A-6 (page 39) shows that the overwhelming majority or chemicals dumped into the Ohio are dumped into the Lower Ohio (Indiana and Kentucky). Indiana is the top state too (page 32). AK Steel (Rockport, IN), on the Ohio, is the top facility (page 43) with over 24 million pounds, i.e. about 75% of the total discharges into the Ohio come from that single plant. Whatever Pennsylvanians do about water quality, the Ohio is going to remain on top of that list until that plant changes its ways.

[hornet67]

Originally Posted by barneyg

Here is the full report (http://www.pennenvironment.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Wasting%20Our%20Waterways%20PA.pdf - broken link). Table A-6 (page 39) shows that the overwhelming majority or chemicals dumped into the Ohio are dumped into the Lower Ohio (Indiana and Kentucky). Indiana is the top state too (page 32). AK Steel (Rockport, IN), on the Ohio, is the top facility (page 43) with over 24 million pounds, i.e. about 75% of the total discharges into the Ohio come from that single plant. Whatever Pennsylvanians do about water quality, the Ohio is going to remain on top of that list until that plant changes its ways.

Thank you; perhaps that will put paid to the assumptions regarding local pollution.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by barneyg

Here is the full report (http://www.pennenvironment.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Wasting%20Our%20Waterways%20PA.pdf - broken link). Table A-6 (page 39) shows that the overwhelming majority or chemicals dumped into the Ohio are dumped into the Lower Ohio (Indiana and Kentucky). Indiana is the top state too (page 32). AK Steel (Rockport, IN), on the Ohio, is the top facility (page 43) with over 24 million pounds, i.e. about 75% of the total discharges into the Ohio come from that single plant. Whatever Pennsylvanians do about water quality, the Ohio is going to remain on top of that list until that plant changes its ways.

In that case it seems like a pretty (intentionally?) deceptive quote by Ms. Staff in this article. Heck, I even sympathize with her cause, but marking Pennsylvania as "a polluters' paradise" does not tell the whole story, does it? That, along with the "tributaries" issue I have, and along with the question of why they are not counting agricultural runoff (which would surely hurt the Western and Midwestern rivers) makes me think someone is cherry-picking facts to fit an agenda. And even though I happen to agree with that agenda in principle, it just looks bad.

[Bong477]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

makes me think someone is cherry-picking facts to fit an agenda. And even though I happen to agree with that agenda in principle, it just looks bad.

It doesn't look bad, it is bad. This crap shouldn't surprise you and unfortunately is common. Unclear whether this person is delibrately deceptive or just spouting off words without really knowing what they are talking about.

(Almost) everyone wants clean water and less pollution, just the way we get there and the price we pay for doing that is open for debate and disagreement. Would be nice if we could talk about issues and solutions without the actual facts being potrayed all deceptively by one side or the other to suit their agenda.

[MathmanMathman]

There was a recent story about PPG and Ford City being sued over some old holding ponds with toxic waste leeching into the Allegheny.

I don't know the technology for clean up, but it just seems that they could at least empty those pools as best they can, and somehow treat the waste to neutralize it to the extent it can be. It's not mystery sludge as they know exactly what's in it.

[gg]

Sorry if that was misleading. It was in the Post Gazette and the Ohio River, so it drags us in. What a sickening shame states allow such things. What is Indiana and Kentucky thinking? It sure is shocking. Hope we set a great example for those other places to follow. Pittsburgh is growing and doing better and I feel part of it is because of it being cleaned up. We have a ways to go, but it is better than it was.