Reply #3: You shouldn't eat the fish you catch.

[DCKit]

Nearly all the rivers, streams and lakes in the country are under advisories for various contaminants, especially mercury, from coal-fired power plants as well as all manner of industrial chemicals. I did an in-depth study about a year ago and found that most agencies involved recommend eating freshwater fish (from almost every U.S. body of water) no more than twice a month and none for pregnant women.

We have the technology to scrub the worst contaminants from smoke-stacks and the EPA, were they allowed to do their job, could clamp down on the polluters. However, corporate polluters own our elected representatives and they haven't stopped crying about how expensive it would be to do the right thing while dispensing their cash, so the administration - all administrations - gives them a pass and the Congress pretends not to notice the destruction of our environment.

When my grandfather was a boy in central PA, the Susquehanna river was so full of fish and eels that the poorest of the poor never had to do without a ready supply of clean, edible and healthy protein. Nixon's establishment of the EPA has given us nearly 40 years to restore the health of our freshwater systems, but the big money is only interested in profit. Ending pollution, though beneficial to every American, doesn't look good on the bottom line.

Corporate influence over our government needs to stop, and not only for environmental reasons. They're killing us in a hundred other ways too.