"Fifty-five percent of U.S. river and stream lengths were in poor condition for aquatic life, largely under threat from runoff contaminated by fertilizers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday."

"High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, runoff from urban areas, shrinking ground cover and pollution from mercury and bacteria were putting the 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) of streams and rivers surveyed under stress, the EPA said.
 
'This new science shows that America's streams and rivers are under significant pressure,' Nancy Stone, acting administrator of the EPA's Office of Water, said in a statement.

Twenty-one percent of the United States' river and stream length was in good biological condition, down from 27 percent in 2004, according to the survey, carried out in 2008 and 2009 at almost 2,000 sites."

Ian Simpson reports for Reuters March 26, 2013. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"EPA: More Than Half of Streams in 'poor' Shape" (AP) [3]

"EPA: More Than Half of Rivers, Streams Have Poor Living Conditions for Aquatic Species" (Minnesota Public Radio) [4]