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Living In Dirty Stormwater Changes Fish

Robert Lawton, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1243835

We used to flush all kinds of things into the gutters of the street, headed for the storm drains. 

And even though a few lessons have been learned (and a few fish stencils have been painted on storm drains), lots of unhealthy substances end up in the drains.  They're not sewers; there's no treatment of the water between drain and street. 

And a recent study shows that the dirty water not only makes life unpleasant for fish, it changes them.  Fish can grow up differently--and not better--when exposed to storm drain runoff.  Jenifer McIntyre and Allison Coffin were among the authors; they visit with highlights. 
 

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Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR since 2009. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
April Ehrlich is JPR content partner at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Prior to joining OPB, she was a regional reporter at Jefferson Public Radio where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.