Pollution Control Standards

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is an organization that includes the 8 states on and around the Ohio River, and its primary focus is to ensure that the river can be used for drinking, industrial supplies, and recreational purposes; and can support a healthy and diverse aquatic community according to their website. This organization has the authority to carry out its mission thanks to a compact signed in 1948 by all of the founding states. This compact states a variety of different rules, such as the fact that standards can’t be set for the whole river due to differences in flow and location. This compact also allows the commission to issue orders on any entity that discharges sewage into the river.

Every year, ORSANCO releases a new set of Pollution Control Standards that all entities within the commissions jurisdiction must abide to. These standards contain a variety of regulations, such as how much of certain chemicals are allowed to be dumped at any one time into the river or which zones of the river are allowed and not allowed to be dumped in.

On a Federal Level

On a federal level, the Clean Water Act of 1972 also applies to river. The act establishes a structure for regulating bodies of water in the United States. The Clean Water Act made it illegal to discharge any pollutants in any body of navigable water unless a specific permit was obtained from the EPA. These rules, in conjunction with the localized ORSANCO Standards, work to prevent disastrous levels of dangerous chemicals in the Ohio River.

Effectiveness of these Regulations

Despite these regulations however, the current amount of toxins that are allowed in the water are still enough to damage local wildlife. Fish in the Ohio River are still absorbing harmful levels of pollutants which shows that these regulations are not comprehensive enough. Stronger regulations and standards need to be introduced for the Ohio River if there is to be any hope in a healthy river. While a step in the right direction, current efforts have been shown to be simply not effective enough.