Microplastics found in state waterways
A new study that sampled water from Pittsburgh’s three rivers, other local waterways, and rivers and streams across Pennsylvania has found microplastic contamination in every one of them.
According to a report released Wednesday by the Penn Environment Research & Policy Center, the tiny plastic bits found in all of the more than 50 lakes, rivers and streams sampled pose a potential environmental and public health threat.
“The results of this study should set off alarms for all Pennsylvanians who love our state’s rivers and streams,“said Faran Savitz, conservation associate at Penn Environment. “The staggering amount of microplastics we found likely means that no river, lake or stream is safe from this increasingly common contaminant.”
The ubiquitous yet almost invisible plastic particles — less than 5 millimeters across or about the size of a sesame seed — were found in the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers; Nine Mile Run in Pittsburgh’s East End; and Chartiers Creek, Turtle Creek and Sewickley Creek, all in Allegheny County.
Microplastics were also found in many of the state’s most popular recreational rivers and streams, including Connoquenessing Creek in Beaver County; Spring Creek in Centre County; the Youghiogheny River in Fayette County; and Lake Erie, Elk Creek and Edinboro Lake, all in Erie County; as well as
the Lower Delaware and Schuylkill rivers in Philadelphia County.
Americans generate more than 35 million tons of plastic waste a year, less than 10% of which is recycled, the report states. Plastics do not biodegrade in the environment, but break down into small pieces in the form of fibers, film, fragments or microbeads.
The 20-page report found that microplastic fibers, shed from fabrics such as fleeces through normal wear and washing, were identified in all of the more than 300 water samples tested. Film particles from plastic bags and food wrapping were in a little more than 94% of the samples, and microplastic fragments from hard plastic containers and polystyrene were found in about 87% of the samples.
U. S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Philadelphia County, said the study will provide “hard data” needed to make the case for the importance of plastic controls on both the state and federal levels.
Pennsylvania waterways are not alone or unique in their microplastic contamination. The report noted that a variety of recent studies have found microplastics in tap water, sea salt and beer, edible parts of wheat and lettuce crops in China, and many remote locations including Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and on Mount Everest in the Himalaya Mountains.
The report cited a 2019 study by the University of Newcastle in Australia that found an average person eats, swallows or breathes in about 2,000 tiny pieces of plastic each week, an amount equal in weight to that of a credit card.
“Visible plastic pollution is ugly, but the real harm is in what we can’t see or collect,” said Myrna
Newman, executive director of Allegheny Cleanways, a community organization that’s been doing riverfront cleanup for more than 20 years. “Microplastics are harmful to riparian wildlife, its food chain and to us. We need to hold plastics manufacturers accountable and find other solutions to plastics.”
Microplastics’ size allows them to attach to contaminants and toxic chemicals and disperse through water where they can be ingested by aquatic plants and fish, working their way up human food chains, said David Velinsky, a vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
“If we don’t want plastic in our bodies or in the bodies of fish, whales or birds, we need to stop the millions of tons of plastic that continue entering into the environment every day, every year,” Mr. Velinsky said. “As this report illustrates, the small microscopic bits and pieces of plastic are present throughout our local environment and can pose an impact to wildlife and humans.”
State Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery County, who helped take water samples on Valley Creek, said he was “shocked” to find microplastics in the stream that flows through Valley Forge National Historical Park.
“Even in the most pristine of settings like that park, plastic shows up,” he said. “Microplastics are affecting every corner of the state.”
State Rep. Perry Warren, D-Bucks County, said the state needs to better regulate use of polystyrene food containers, single-use water bottles and plastic straws, and overturn the state law that prevents municipalities from banning plastic shopping bags.