As Massachusetts continues to try and forge ahead as one of the nationwide leaders in environmental friendliness, a new study shows that thousands of pounds of toxic waste flowed through the Bay State’s waterways in 2012.
The Environment Massachusetts Research & Policy Center published a report on Thursday, aptly called “Wasting Our Waterways” in which it notes that 5,555 pounds of toxic materials were dumped into waterways across the Commonwealth just two years ago.
Data compiled comes courtesy of the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2012, the most recent data available.
Some of the key findings are baffling in many respects. For example, the largest offender of water pollution in the Bay State in 2012 was Onyx Specialty Papers Inc. based out of South Lee, the small Southwestern Massachusetts town. They dumped “3,256 pounds of chemicals linked to cancer, including formaldehyde, into the Housatonic River.” How could this be allowed to happen?
BostInno reached out to Onyx for a comment, but have yet to receive a response.
That same year, Massachusetts was ranked 4th in terms of lowest pollution levels nationwide best only by New England neighbors Rhode Island and New Hampshire, and Arizona.
“Working together with community officials, legislators and others, we have made extraordinary strides over the past 20 years in improving water quality on the Connecticut River,” said Chris Curtis, Chief Planner and Section Manager for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, “and have now cleaned up more than 50 percent of the combined sewer overflow pollution that has impacted the river since the early 1900’s.”
The report continues to note that, due to legal proceedings brought on by pollution violators, “4,279 miles of streams in Massachusetts and just under 5 million Bay-Staters’ drinking water” are compromised.
Along with the EPA and others, though, the Policy Center is advocating for legislation that will reverse these numbers and close any loopholes that allow for them to remain so high.
“Massachusetts’ waterways shouldn’t be a polluter’s dumping ground,” said Steven Latka, program intern, in a statement. “If we want the Connecticut River to be clean for future generations of Bay-Staters, we must restore Clean Water Act protections to all of our waterways, and we must do it now.”
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