The Susquehanna River was the big loser when conservation group American Rivers released its 2005 America’s Most Endangered Rivers report. With aging sewer systems discharging enormous volumes of raw or poorly treated sewage that eventually flows down into the Chesapeake Bay, judges felt they had no alternative but to award the 444-mile river that flows through New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania the lion’s share of the prize ahead of McCrystal Creek in New Mexico and Colorado’s Fraser River.

In fact, sewerage was the highlight of this year’s report, with some 860 billion gallons of untreated sewage reported to be fouling America’s rivers with pollution each year. American Rivers called on federal lawmakers to reject the cuts in clean water investment proposed by the Bush administration and step up their oversight of how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency carries out its water protection responsibilities.

“All across America, rivers link one town’s toilets to the next town’s faucets,” said Rebecca R. Wodder, president of American Rivers. “And when it rains, sewage pours into those rivers, billions of gallons of it every year.”

Sewer spills, poor treatment, and other symptoms of a failing system can be found all across the country, including four of the rivers on this year’s list. Untreated human sewage teems with salmonella, hepatitis, dysentery, cryptosporidium, and many other infectious diseases. Scientists believe as many as 3.5 million Americans get sick each year after swimming, boating, fishing, or otherwise touching water they thought was safe.

“It wasn”t long ago, the deadly waterborne illness, Cryptosporidium, was found near Milwaukee and was traced back to a sewage dumping occurrence that would be allowed under this proposal. This contamination killed over 100 people and sickened over 400,000,” said Rep. Bart Stupak in March when introducing the Save Our Waters from Sewage Act. “Billions of gallons of human waste are dumped into our Great Lakes and other water resources each year. This sort of outbreak can happen again if we don’t act now to prevent the EPA from rolling back our clean water standards.”

As a first step towards rectifying this situation, American Rivers called on Congress to reject further cuts and invest more in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to $3.2 billion in 2006 and beyond. “Increasing investment to $10.85 per citizen per year would be a good start, but it’s not enough. Lawmakers should also establish a dedicated federal trust fund to disperse aid to water utilities on a consistent basis.”

To see the complete list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers for 2005 click here.