Report: Ohio River most polluted in U.S.

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A new report from PennEnvironment said Pennsylvania's lakes, rivers and streams are the seventh most-polluted in the United States and the Ohio River is the most polluted in the country.

"Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act" detailed the 226 million pounds of toxic chemicals that PennEnvironment said were being put into U.S. waterways. Thirty-two million pounds go into the Ohio River alone, according to the analysis of federal data for 2010. The Monongahela River is the the 17th-most polluted in the U.S., the report said.

PennEnvironment said U.S. Steel - Clairton Works' 2.4 million pounds of chemicals put into the Monongahela River and Peters Creek make it the biggest polluter in the state. U.S. Steel officials weren't immediately available for comment. The report also said Jewel Acquisition LLC - Midland Plant and Carpenter Technology Corp. also have discharged at least 1 million pounds of chemicals into rivers in Pennsylvania.

"This is certainly not the kind of top 10 list where we want Pittsburgh to appear," Brenda Smith, executive director of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, said in a statement along with the report. "Our efforts to promote the region as a center of green innovation with a high quality of life are dramatically undercut by the ongoing reality of toxic pollution."

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