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magazine editor Eugene Buchanan. "Municipalities are developing waterfronts to take advantage of a natural resource. It's good because more people are getting involved in paddling. Now instead of driving four hours, they can paddle right in town, before or after work." "It' a ren CAUTႀ䊉 RY TALEႀ Despite the improvements, there are still days when the Hudson River seems awash with post-rain debris. Brown masses of untreated sewage gather in eddies near the pier-line at Canal Street with bits of driftwood, tennis balls and a couple of "Coney Island whitefish"-the local term for discarded condoms. Tom Young, a professor of environmental engi neering at Clarkson University, described sewage over flows in particular in threatening terms. The problem on many waterways worldwide is human and livestock waste, Young says. These are "potential carriers of pathogenic organisms, including viruses, bacteria and protozoan parasites," he warns. "Anyone participat ing in contact recreation would be at risk of expo sure." Sort of a riverine Hot Zone. In urban areas, combined sewage overflows, or CSOs in wastewater technospeak, are the major source of these pathogens. They occur when rainwater running off the streets mixes with sewage. Larger objects, such as the dead newborn baby girl found in a Jersey City sewage plant in March, are eliminated from the waste stream, but most of this glop overwhelms treatment facilities and rushes directly into rivers and bays. Making matters worse on the Hudson, New York City samples the river's water quality only about half as often as required by state guidelines. s t d " says Paddler , Henriksen is not worried. "I've kayaked on the Hudson for nine years and have never been sick from it, " he says. Anyway, "it takes three days of rain to over whelm the sewer system." On the beaches of Southern California, a coali tion of surfers has been agitating for action beyond the state's policy of closing a few beaches after heavy rains. In February alone, an estimated 87 million gallons of raw sewage entered Ventura and Los Angeles coastal waters at the same time as surf breaks were going off the Richter during EI Nino-driven storms. A San Diego group, Surfers Tired Of Pollution (STOP) responded by erecting signs warning swimmers and surfers to avoid the water near storm drains at 19 beaches in La Jolla and Pacific Beach. In South Africa, several researchers demon strated a link between canoeing, sewage, and a host of diseases. And a 1992 study published in the medical journal Lancet revealed a significantly higher inci dence of gastrointestinal and upper respiratory illness among canoeists who ran a slalom course on a river that received treated effluent from several sewage plants upstream. Pollutants from industry and agriculture also cause concern. America's roster of stilI-contaminat ed rivers includes the nation's mightiest: the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. In West Virginia, chicken farms dump millions of pounds of raw waste into the South Branch River each year. According to a study, more than one billion pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped directly into the United States' waters between 1990 and 1994. While a billion pounds sounds like a lot of pol lution, these waterways are far cleaner than they have been in decades. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the landmark US legislation committed to More t an one billion pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped directly into the United States' waters between 1990 and 1994. 54