Poisoned Waters

In the span of just a few decades, the East coast's Chesapeake Bay has gone from an inlet teeming with fish and wildlife to an endangered area pocked with “dead zones” devoid of oxygen. Meanwhile, on the West coast, Puget Sound has experienced an alarming decline in the population of Orca whales. Hosted by Hedrick Smith, the PBS-aired documentary Poisoned Waters examines how the thoughtless actions of humans are rapidly altering and destroying these bodies of water, ultimately suggesting that we are rapidly approaching the point of no return. After the first Earth Day celebration in the early 1970s, then-President Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Agency into law—albeit reluctantly—but huge factory farms continue to dump fertilizer into the streams and rivers feeding the Chesapeake Bay, and while the EPA has pressured agribusiness to clean up its act, these industries still have many friends and lobbyists in surrounding state capitols (most notably during the Reagan administration, regulations were replaced with “voluntary compliance” and shifting deadlines for cleanup). On the West Coast, Puget Sound is in the “intensive care” unit, due to a “toxic cocktail” of chemicals left by rusting or defunct industries. Unwise land use patterns, which too often replace porous soil with impervious surfaces, compound the problems at both coastal estuaries by accelerating the runoff of chemicals into nearby water. Poisoned Waters offers a balanced view but highlights the need for “smart growth” and public awareness of this little understood and often invisible crisis. An informative survey of a national “ticking time bomb,” this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)