Spotlight on Urban Pollution: How NOAA Works to Keep Urban Waterways Clean and Recover After Pollution
![The Lower Duwamish River in Seattle. Image credit: NOAA. An urban waterway.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/%5Buid%5D/Lower-Duwamish-Aerial-NMFS.png)
Urban coastal communities present unique challenges when addressing pollution. The impacts can range from ecological to social. Pollution from past and current commercial and industrial activities has impaired our rivers and coasts.
Hazardous waste, including oil spills, can have a devastating impact on coastal communities—affecting recreational and commercial activities such as fishing. NOAA is responsible for assessing and restoring river and coastal resources injured by hazardous waste releases. NOAA focuses on hazardous waste releases with the potential to harm marine and coastal resources, including chemicals like PCBs, and dioxins, PAHs, and toxic metals such as lead and mercury. These substances are released into coastal habitats and waterways from many commercial and industrial activities, such as shipbuilding, oil storage and transfer, and chemical manufacturing, among others.
This week, we’re taking a look at the different types of urban industrial pollution, how NOAA responds to pollution events and aids in the recovery of natural resources lost due to pollution, and what you can do to help keep pollution out of your waterway. In the blogs below, read about outdoor recreation on Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia River, urban community marine-debris cleanups, and how NOAA coordinates with the Urban Waters Federal Partnership on the Delaware, Anacostia, and Passaic river watersheds.
A Look at Oil Spills in Urban Centers
What’s different about spills in urban environments? When we hear or read about an oil spill, we often envision thick oil sullying a wilderness or open ocean environment—but most spills occur in more urban areas, where oil terminals, refineries, ports and marinas, or rail facilities are situated. In our latest blog, check out some oil spills that occurred in industrial and urban waterways and the types of impacts that they created, and the efforts of NOAA and partners to protect and restore injured resources ... Keep Reading.
Marine Debris Close to Home: Cleaning Up Our Urban Shores and Waterways
The coastal urban environment is an important place for people to enjoy a little bit of nature, and equally valuable for the animals and plants that make it their home. However, with people comes trash, and coastal areas close to large population centers can face a heavy burden of marine debris. The NOAA Marine Debris Program works with partners across the nation to prevent and remove marine debris in urban areas. ... Keep Reading.
The Value of Urban Waterways
You might be surprised to learn what swims through America’s cities. Even waterways with a history of pollution are full of life and are vital parts of local communities. In our latest blog, explore five urban waterways across the U.S to see the unique natural resources found there and learn where NOAA and co-trustee partners are working to restore urban habitats and communities ... Keep Reading.
The Anacostia River: Challenges and Opportunities for Outdoor Recreation in the Heart of Washington, DC
The Anacostia River in Washington D.C. has a long history of industrial pollution, but in recent years local advocates, government agencies, and water utilities have made great strides in restoring this urban river. Learn more in this guest blog from co-author Erin Garnass-Holmes, ambassador to the Anacostia Watershed Urban Waters Partnership ... Keep Reading.
The Nation's Founding Fish Returns to America's Most Historic Small Watershed
In this guest blog from our partners at the Brandywine Conservancy, learn about the Conservancy's reinvigoration of a 300-year-old quest to bring back our nation's founding fish to America's most historic small watershed ... Keep Reading.
Three Ways You Can Reduce Your Household's Pollution Footprint
In our latest blog, NOAA’s Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Pollution Prevention Extension Specialist Sarah Zack shares tips for how to reduce your household pollution footprint. ... Keep Reading.
Restoring Polluted Urban Areas Helps the Environment and Communities Rebound
NOAA and partners have supported communities through restoration at two urban Superfund sites in Massachusetts and Washington. We’re increasing access to parks, and getting locals involved in habitat restoration through training and job opportunities. ... Keep Reading.
more images
![Oil in vegetated river bank (bachure) from a morning overflight, July 25, 2008. Image credit: NOAA. Oil in water.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Aerial-image-oiling.jpeg)
![Hundreds of miles of shoreline in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware had to be inspected and the oiled areas cleaned up. Image credit: NOAA. An oiled beach.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Athos-oiled-rocks.jpeg)
![Damage to port side of M/V Cosco Busan. Image credit: U.S. Coast Guard District 11 Public Affairs. A shipping vessel.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Damage-to-port-side-of-vessel_USCG-District-11-Public-Affairs.jpeg)
![From landfill to vibrant tidal marsh, the wetland restoration at Lincoln Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, restored a significant area of coastal wetlands in New York-New Jersey harbor’s Arthur Kill ecosystem. Image credit: NOAA. A grassy river with a bridge in the background.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/restored-wetlands-bridge-lincoln-park-exxon-bayway_noaa.jpeg)
![The Salem Nuclear Power Plant is a two-unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power station located in New Jersey. Following the spill, it was shut down for over a week out of precaution, in order to keep the oil submerged in the river from clogging its critical water intake system. Image credit: NOAA. An industrial shoreline.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Athos-SalemNP-booming.jpeg)
![Volunteers clean-up small, floatable debris at Seagirt Wetlands in Jamaica Bay, Queens, New York (Photo: New York City Department of Parks and Recreation). Three people walk along a shoreline and collect debris from the grass. Several large buildings can be seen in the background.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Seagirt%20Cleanup_2.2.18%20%288%29%20%281%29.jpg)
![One of 130 cigarette butt disposal canisters installed by Surfrider San Francisco as part of the Hold on to Your Butts campaign (Photo: NOAA). A metal cigarette butt disposal canister getting installed onto a pole along the street.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/butt%20can%20installation%20Jan%202020%20photo%20credit%20NOAA_sq.jpeg)
![Surfrider volunteers pick up an average of 6,500 butts at every two-hour cleanup event (Photo: Surfrider San Francisco). Milk jugs holding collected cigarette butts next to a beach cleanup sign.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/butts-collection_sq.jpeg)
![Two Band-A-Long trash booms, such as this one in DC, were installed in two tributaries of the Anacostia River (Photo: District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment). Example of a floating trash boom installed on a river.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/IMG_0604_0.jpeg)
![NOAA's eel ladder demonstration is one of the highlights of Submerge! Last year, thousands of visitors stopped by to meet live eels and learn how NOAA's Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program works to restore access so these animals can reach habitat upstream of man-made barriers in rivers and streams. Image credit: NOAA. A group of kids holding a crab.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/pasted%20image%200%20%2878%29.png)
![The Southern Resident population of killer whales is an iconic species in the Pacific Northwest, spending several months during summer and fall in Washington’s San Juan Islands and Puget Sound where they feed primarily on salmon. Image credit: NOAA. A group of orcas with a city skyline in the background.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/pasted%20image%200%20%2880%29.png)
![Photos of the Anacostia River taken during a tour of the site. Images credit: Megan Ewald/NOAA. Kayakers on a river.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/unnamed%20%281%29_0.jpeg)
![Photos of the Anacostia River taken during a tour of the site. Images credit: Megan Ewald/NOAA. A bridge over water.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/unnamed%20%282%29_2.jpeg)