I've loved rivers all my life. That's what drew me to become an environmentalist and, lucky for me, a paid environmental advocate. I've spent years working to protect rivers from all manner of abuse and pollution.

One reassuring aspect of this challenge is that at least America has some pretty strong laws on the books that help us tackle environmental problems. When it comes to water quality, we have several protective statutes including the Clean Water Act.

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?

Here's a sobering fact: The Great Lakes contain 20% of all the fresh water in the world, but they replenish at a rate of just 1% per year. This means that the sewage dumped in them today will be with us for the next century - posing an environmental risk and a threat to the primary drinking water source for millions of people on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.

Every year for the past two decades, companies have reported their releases of toxic chemicals to the public. This isn't a voluntary step, taken out of the goodness of industry's heart - it's a federal law.

Congress created the Toxics Release Inventory program in the wake of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, where an accidental release of toxins killed and injured thousands of people living near the plant.

In many developing countries 80-90% of human sewage entering the marine environment is untreated. In its regular Earth Trends series, the World Resources Institute recently explored this issue and raised serious concerns about the future impacts on marine life, human livelihoods, and local tourism-based economies.

Do you remember the e coli outbreak on the bagged spinach back in September - upon getting reports of the tainted veggies, the FDA immediately and rightly issued a warning not to eat the spinach because it was dicey for our health. Similarly, I know that it's unsafe for me to go running outside during the summer when the air pollution alert is orange or red.

Mr. Floatie!Flipping through the latest issue of Utne Reader, something caught my eye: a photo of a seven-foot tall...er, um...turd (with a sailor hat!).

Meet the one and only Mr. Floatie, described in the brief article as the brainchild of People Opposed to Outfall Pollution.

The New Year is here but we're still dealing with leftovers. Put another way, "Yule" never believe what scientists are finding in sewage: a spike in festive spices during the holiday season.

Researchers at the University of Washington used sophisticated laboratory equipment to test treated sewage headed from Seattle-area wastewater treatment plants straight to Puget Sound.

Washington, D.C.'s riverfront is set to undergo rejuvenation spurred by construction of a brand new baseball stadium for the Nationals. City officials are banking on the Anacostia River to serve as the scenic centerpiece of massive redevelopment. Ringed by a necklace of new stadiums, office buildings, condominiums and parks, this crown jewel is expected to shine as a new hub of urban life.

This past summer, a spinach e-coli scare was front page news for days. But before the recent front-page Washington Post article, most readers probably never dreamed that more than 2 billion gallons of raw sewage pour into the Anacostia River every year.

Nation-wide, the figure is a mind-boggling 860 billion gallons of raw or partially-treated sewage that flow straight into our rivers and streams.