Healthy Waters Coalition

Congress holds the key to turning the tide on Ohio River Basin pollution The vast Ohio River Basin is poised for a multi-year ecological restoration after years of industrial pollution, but only if Congress decides to fund it.

Check out the Ohio River Basin on NPR!
www.npr.org/2025/11/17/n...

The Healthy Waters Coalition takes on D.C! Thank you to our Steering Committee for attending the 2025 Capitol Hill Fly-In. We met with offices across the basin and are excited to support the Ohio River Restoration Program Act H.R. 5966!

Meet our amazing Steering Committee on our website healthywatercoalition.org! You can also find a list of our over 140 members and more! Join us today!

@americanrivers.bsky.social @pennfuture.bsky.social @nationalwildlife.bsky.social

Thank you to our outstanding Steering Committee, who will help strategize our next steps and put us on the path to success. We greatly appreciate their support and are very excited to see what incredible work will come from our coalition across the 15-state Ohio River Basin

Thank you, Rep. Messmer, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.
#RepMessmer

Thank you, Rep. Rulli, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.
#RepRulli

Thank you, Rep. Shreve, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.
#RepShreve

Thank you, @repmrvan.bsky.social, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.

Thank you, @repsummerlee.bsky.social, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.

Thank you, @deluzio.house.gov, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.

Thank you, @repemiliasykes.bsky.social, for cosponsoring the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.

Thank you, Rep. Houchin, for your leadership and sponsorship of the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.
#RepHouchin #cleanwater

Thank you, Rep. McGarvey, for your leadership and sponsorship of the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in the House to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for more than 30 million people.
#RepMcGarvey

The Ohio River Restoration Program Act, H.R. 5966, would allocate $350 MILLION in federal investments dedicated to making the rivers, streams, fish, and drinking water of the Ohio River Basin clean, healthy, and safe again.

The Healthy Waters Coalition is proud to support the Ohio River Restoration Program Act.
www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

Bipartisan Members of Congress Launch Federal Push to Fund Ohio River Restoration | Congressman Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky's 3rd District The Official U.S. Congressional website of Morgan McGarvey

Big News! The Ohio River Restoration Program Act has been introduced in the House. You can find more information at mcgarvey.house.gov/media/press-...

Over the last four years, members of the Healthy Waters Coalition have been working with the Ohio River Basin Alliance to craft a regional restoration strategy to provide a strong case statement for action to restore and protect our waters. We thank ORBA for its leadership and dedication #cleanwater

The 204,000-square-mile Ohio River Basin is a nationally and globally significant freshwater habitat—a diverse and vast network of rivers and wetlands—that supports an incredible array of fish, wildlife, and birds.

625 wildlife species in the ORB are classified as threatened or endangered due to pollution, habitat destruction, and invasive species

The increasing frequency of intense storms and severe flooding in the ORB threatens public safety and exacerbates additional serious issues

There are more than 11,000 combined sewer overflow events in the ORB each year, discharging over 125,000 million gallons of untreated wastewater into local waters

The ORB is one of the leading contributors to runoff pollution, which led to a 650-mile-long toxic algal bloom in the Ohio River and contributed more than a third of the nutrient pollution, causing a huge dead zone in the Gulf

In all states in the basin except Mississippi, it is not safe to eat fish caught from some lakes, rivers, or streams due to contaminants like mercury, PCBs, pesticides, dioxins, and PFAS

There are at least 146 toxic waste dumps, commonly called EPA Superfund sites, in the Ohio River Basin, contaminating water supplies or threatening to

69% of assessed stream miles in the Ohio River Basin do not meet state water quality standards, and 64% of assessed lake acres in the region do not meet state water quality standards

The waters of the Ohio River Basin face serious threats, and the scale of the problems is outpacing the ability of states, individually or collectively, to address them.

The river supplies drinking water to more than 5 million people, and millions more depend on the Ohio River for their health, jobs, and quality of life.

The Ohio River Basin is home to 30 million people, as well as critical natural resources, manufacturing, energy, and some of the country’s most-visited national parks, all of which rely on the streams and rivers within it.

ORB species represent nearly half of native freshwater fish species and over a third of freshwater mussel species found in the U.S. Many bird species rely on these habitats during migration or seasonal nesting.