Yangtze River DolphinWho doesn't love dolphins? The Chinese have long revered the legendary "baiji" dolphin, a six feet long, tiny-eyed, long-nosed "gray phantom" that for eons has made its home in the waters of the Yangtze River. But not for much longer. With only 50 left along the river's 1,500-mile reach, scientists have declared the dolphin "functionally extinct." The primary culprit? Sewage fouling the creature's habitat.

The habit for humans is not much better in Israel's sacred River of Jordan. "Wading into the Jordan River, the pastor blessed his flock, tapping the believers on the head before sending them into the hallowed waters to be baptized. The faithful wet their faces and arms, shouting ‘amen' and ‘hallelujah' after each baptism, unaware that just downstream, raw sewage was flowing into the water."

Here at home we also need to be concerned about the human health risks in our rivers. Untreated and partially treated sewage contaminates water with nasty micro-organisms (like E. coli), and other germs (like dysentery, cholera and hepatitis). Health experts estimate that there are 7.1 million mild-to-moderate cases and 560,000 moderate-to-severe cases of waterborne disease in the U.S. annually.

Sadly - and all too often - children, the elderly, cancer patients and other people with weakened immune systems are more likely to get sick from coming into contact with sewage-contaminated water.

So sewage dumping pollutes our rivers, contaminates downstream drinking water supplies, causes disease outbreaks, and raises treatment costs. I doubt those Chinese dolphins would have fared much better in America.