Cause (above) and effect (photo below): Polluted Okeechobee discharges cause algai blooms and fish kills in the St. Lucie River.

Coastal fishing is highly dependent on water quality. More than 30 years ago, the Clean Water Act mandated that all point source and non-point source pollution should be eliminated by now in our coastal waterways. Yet there are still numerous coastal rivers and bays on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where world-class fisheries are taking it on the chin, due to negligence, poor management or downright criminal mishaps. The following is a lineup of “representative disaster-pieces,” a Hall of Shame to shed light on polluters and agencies that have turned their heads to the perverse degradation of our prized rivers.

Massachusetts
Rhode Island

Tauton River & Narragansett Bay

Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association’s recent estimates show 400,000 people fish in Rhode Island waters, but the number of anglers fishing in Mount Hope Bay, a nursery area for Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound, has diminished. This decline is directly related to Brayton Point Station in Somerset, Massachusetts, New England’s largest fossil fuel-burning power plant.

A 1996 Massachussetts Department of Environmental Management (MADEP) report linked the Brayton Point power plant to an 87 percent reduction in biomass. The report cited the plant’s increased use of Bay water for cooling in the mid-1980s as the primary cause. The plant uses up to 1 billion gallons per day of Mount Hope Bay water to cool its generators, which destroys millions of fish eggs and larvae. Ninety-five-degree effluent also repels fish and interferes with feeding and migration patterns.

Effects of the algai bloom.

The Environmental Protection Agency, MADEP, and the Save the Bay Foundation concluded that in order for the fishery to recover, stronger controls must be promulgated to restore the health of Mount Hope Bay and greater Narragansett Bay ecosystem. A stringent Clean Water Act permit was issued, requiring the plant to reduce Bay water use by 95 percent. But nearly 10 years after such impacts were conclusively demonstrated, National Energy & Gas Transmission, Inc. continues to appeal.

“The harm has been allowed to continue despite government knowledge of the severity and source for almost ten years. They have no right to continue to degrade the remaining resources in Mount Hope Bay and prevent its recovery,” said John Torgin, local angler and Baykeeper.

New York
New Jersey

Passaic River & New York Bight

Known as the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site, the contaminated area includes sites bordering Staten Island. For decades, highly toxic chemicals flowed downstream from industrial facilities on the Passaic River. Bluefish, rainbow smelt and striped bass have such high levels of carcinogenic dioxin that New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recommends fish consumption of one per month throughout adjacent waters.

Aware that this dioxin-laced Superfund site sits beneath the Ports of New York and New Jersey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pressed forward with its plan to dredge directly through the site, while brashly acknowledging that it would disperse contaminated sediments. The dredging project could have contaminated Jamaica Bay, one of the Hudson-Raritan estuary’s most treasured habitats, and potentially the fishing hot spots off of Sandy Hook. After hearing a lawsuit filed by Environmental Protection Agency, New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, Natural Resource Defense Council and others, a federal court judge ruled against the Corps for violating federal law.

“Our organizations will continue to fight for the cleanup of the Passaic River and Newark Bay, and to reclaim these waterways for the public,” said Baykeeper and local angler Andrew Willner. Norcross Wildlife Foundation Program officer and local guide John McMurray also said, “It’s disturbing that they would even think about dredging the contaminated sediments in Newark Bay. Given the potential health threats, this would have severely impacted my guiding business as well as other area business that rely on Lower New York Harbor’s marine resources.”

Maryland

Chesapeake Bay & Susquehanna River

Citing a growing problem of sewage and agricultural runoff, as well as dam construction along the river, American Rivers this year listed the Susquehanna River as number one on its Most Endangered Rivers list. The Susquehanna serves as the Chesapeake Bay’s “Mother River,” contributing half of the freshwater flows. The Bay needs that fresh water, but not when it comes as a spring flood polluted with nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. The runoff affects both smallmouth bass habitat in the nontidal section of the river and rockfish (striped bass) habitat in the upper Chesapeake.

“Over the past three years, we’ve gone from averaging 30 to 70 bass per day—depending upon angler ability—to fewer than five per outing,” said Bob Clouser, inventor of the Clouser Minnow. “The bottom looks like an army blanket,” he continued. “Bacteria decaying the algae have sucked all the oxygen out of the water, and the mess is pouring into the Bay.”