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Did you know?
A 2006 study of water quality in Virginia and Maryland published in The Washington Post found that many of the germs—and in some rivers, a majority of them—come from wildlife “deposits.” That’s right. The dung from millions of geese, deer, muskrats, raccoons and other wild animals accounted for the vast majority of water degradation. A study conducted by Virginia Tech found that humans were responsible for 24 percent of the bacteria in the nearby Anacostia River and 16 percent of the Potomac’s. Sources included broken septic tanks and the district’s large sewage overflows during heavy rains. Livestock were responsible for 10 percent of the bacteria, the study found.
“Then there are nature’s own polluters,” wrote The Post’s David Fahrenthold. In the Potomac and Anacostia, for example, more than half of the bacteria in the streams came from wild creatures. EPA documents, he noted, show that similar problems were found in Maryland where wildlife were more of a problem than humans and livestock combined. “Wildlife consistently came up as being a major player,” said Peter Gold, an environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency.
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