Streams
All of the Creeks and Streams in New Garden Township have been declared unfit for swimming, fishing and other uses by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
We've made a lot of progress cleaning up America's lakes, rivers, and streams since the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. We don't have fires on rivers anymore. Fish kills are down, and the quality of sewage treatment has improved dramatically. But even with all our laws and regulations, about half of America's waters are still too polluted for fishing, swimming, and other uses. Compounding the problem is a lack of public awareness.
New Gardens' streams are still contaminated by sediment, sewage, disease-causing bacteria, fertilizers, manure, toxic metals, and oil and grease. Some of our stream corridors, riverbanks, and lake shores lack stabilizing vegetation and continue to erode, further degrading water quality and aquatic habitat.
Today, polluted stormwater runoff is the source of most of the contamination in the New Gardens waters. Heavy rains and melting snow pick up pollutants and transport them downhill toward the nearest body of water or leach through the soil, carrying pollutants toward ground water supplies.
