Nurdles break down into microscopic plastic particles that can make their way into humans through the consumption of contaminated fish and water.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicroplastics can build up in the bodies of people and animals, causing a myriad of health risks,\u201d the nonprofit said in its release.<\/p>\n
Other alleged pollution in the Congaree<\/p>\n
The Riverkeeper also alleges that the plant is \u201cdischarging large amounts of 1,4-dioxane, a toxic chemical, into the Congaree River without a permit,\u201d as well as excessive amounts of organic waste, which \u201cthreatens aquatic life and fisheries,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Stangler noted that 1,4-dioxane is a likely carcinogen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s no limit on how much they’re putting in the river,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re just doing it. And so we have serious concerns about what that means, not just for the river’s health and the health of aquatic organisms and wildlife, but also what that means for these downstream drinking water intakes as far down as lakes Marion and Moultrie.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler pulls up a map on his office computer of the Lower Saluda River near Shaw Industries\u2019 plant in Irmo.<\/p>\n
Gavin McIntyre\/Staff<\/p>\n
Stop the pollution, then what?<\/p>\n
Stangler said he\u2019s confident the lawsuit will pressure the companies to reduce the pollution coming from the plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clean Water Act is pretty clear about what you are and aren’t allowed to do, and dumping millions of little plastic pellets into a river is not something that the Clean Water Act allows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked how the river might rebound, Stangler said his focus is on stopping the pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is incredibly difficult to go and remove all these, though I think there should absolutely be some effort to do that, especially where we may find significant hot spots \u2026 like their outfall channel,\u201d Stangler said. \u201cWe certainly want them to go and clean that up, so they’re not trickling these plastic pellets into the river for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
A precedent was set by other groups that have sought to hold plastic polluters accountable, he noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurdles break down into microscopic plastic particles that can make their way into humans through the consumption of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[18888,308258,308255,85265,308257,308254,308256,192,174715,308259,21251,294920,79],"class_list":["post-715042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-18888","tag-4-dioxane","tag-alpek-polyester","tag-clean-water-act","tag-congaree-national-park","tag-congaree-river","tag-eastman-chemical","tag-environment","tag-gaston","tag-lexington-county","tag-microplastics","tag-nurdles","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}