The most polluted bodies of water in the US Part 3: The Savannah River
This one hits close to home for me. I grew up just outside of Savannah, GA. The year I graduated from high school, the Savannah River was the most polluted river in the US. Apparently, not a lot has changed in the last 30 years.
The Savannah River’s headwaters are in Appalachia in North Carolina and flows to the Atlantic Ocean, forming the border between Georgia and South Carolina. It drains 10,577 square miles and provides drinking water for more than one million people.
There are hundreds of sources of pollution into the Savannah RIver. The river is impaired by heavy metals, sediment, and low levels of dissolved oxygen. At least 50 government and private entities share responsibility for maintaining water quality in the Savannah River basin, which makes water management complicated.
In the 1950’s, the Savannah River Plant was constructed on 310 square miles of land near Aiken, SC on the bank of the Savannah River. The plant produced plutonium, tritium, and heavy water for nuclear weapons, and is now operated under the Department of Energy. The site’s reactors and the coal power plant discharged heat waste to the river via creeks, which significantly elevated temperatures in the Savannah River and several of its tributaries during the operating life of the reactors. The Savannah River Site (as it is now known) releases over 7 million gallons of contaminated water into the river each year containing radioactive plutonium, tritium, strontium-90, cobalt-60, and cesium-137.
A 2014 report that evaluated EPA Toxics Release Inventory data showed that more than 5 million pounds of toxic discharge was released into the Savannah River. The report found that DSM Chemicals North America in Augusta was the biggest polluter in the state.
A 2018 report by The Savannah Riverkeeper shows that 72% of the Savannah River is likely contaminated.
“The Savannah River ranks third in the country for toxic discharges…Much of the problem stems from court cases brought by polluters that stripped many area waterways of protections ensured by the Clean Water Act. The Environment Georgia Research and Policy Center, its allies and the Environmental Protection Agency have proposed closing a loophole and restoring safeguards, but repairing the damage will take considerable time.”
Sources:
https://environment.co/the-7-most-polluted-bodies-of-water-in-the-us
https://www.savannahriverkeeper.org/the-savannah-river.html
https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/sustainablerivers/sites/savannah
https://garivers.org/savannah-river
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_River
https://culliganhhi.com/how-the-savannah-river-site-could-be-impacting-your-water/
https://ieer.org/resource/press-releases/nuclear-dumps-riverside-threats/
https://www.wtoc.com/2018/12/07/recent-data-shows-over-savannah-river-is-likely-contaminated
