HC 441: Willamette River Health

The Willamette River is polluted with many different substances, fecal material from inadequately-treated sewage, mercury from abandoned mines, toxic waste from underwater dump sites, and trash from people using the area for recreation. Some sources of pollution, such as the extremely high levels of nitrates, phosphates, and potassium from cow manure, are naturally occurring and hard to control1. Others are entirely the product of human use, and can be controlled through human behavior. One of these is pesticide. Presently there are a number of scientific studies available that list the types and amounts of different pesticides detected in areas of the Willamette River. One study reported by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) describes the results of a United States Geological Survey (USGS)2. At forty different sites along the river, ninety-four water samples were collected and tested (see Fig. 1). At each site the investigators found a median number of eight contaminants. Several of these pesticides have already been linked to breast cancer and male fertility problems, and many more may be once they’ve been studied2. The most common pesticides were atrazine, metolachlor, simazine, and diuron. Atrazine has been shown to cause breast cancer in rats, and is nearly as harmful as DDT in that respect. It has also been associated with interference in testosterone metabolism 2and binding. Metolachlor has not been shown to have harmful reproductive effects, but it can cause serious intoxication in humans if inhaled3. Symptoms include abdominal cramps, anemia, shortness of breath, dark urine, convulsions, diarrhea, jaundice, weakness, nausea, sweating, and dizziness3