water was a good conveyance for pollution. man: sewer systems are installed to reduce public health problems. now what you're doing is transferring the problem, you're transferring it to downstream cities. in addition, cities and towns above pittsburgh were doing the same thing. and then they were affecting the water intakes of pittsburgh. 90% of this region gets its drinking water from those same rivers that we have overflows occurring. hecht: we have sewage overflow with as little as 1/10" inch of rain. and our average storm here is a 1/4" storm. lichte: over a year's period, 16 billion gallons' worth of combined sewage and stormwater overflows into our rivers. tarr: it's not a problem of point "x" and point "y" alone. this is a watershed problem. a watershed problem. lichte: the watershed encompasses many municipal boundaries and it doesn't know any local politics. narrator: in the pittsburgh system, 83 cities and towns use the same sewage treatment plant -- alcosan. so all 83 municipalities have to work together to address

if you're talking about the bias he actually is a pollution not if you don't know it is a pollutant of the in the spring or backed him up the supreme court said the e.p.a. may regulate under they don't say they show it is a hedge and it's a pollutant because it causes global warming and it does devastate and are something we inhale oxygen we exhale c o two things back o. causes cancer absolutely so you know many of these same scientists who are denying global warming were the same scientists twenty thirty years ago rather same people for your back to back in those days and these guys were all going to look at you know so you know you just said these are secondhand smoke and didn't like what they saw with the e.p.a. was doing for political purposes on the impact of second hand smoke but no one's out there saying that's just a smear and fact is how is it different how what different how how is it time for a cessation of gas yes we exhale you're comparing the tobacco smoke now yet you sound like a republican leader boehner who said c o two was a carcinogen why don't you just claim that

so what happens in the cyanide ravine isn't pollution from. this pollution. since cyanide falls into her veins you know it's bullish. but it's profit to profitable the pollution imo december's my we know it damaging the environment but this is how we end our bread that. i. am i. despite the reactions of the citizens of mar matto the government is planning to relocate them in order to open the way form a doro new open pit mine. the justification for this used by the government is a landslide which took place in two thousand and six it claims of the population is in a high danger zone which means they must be moved to a safer area. despite the fact that state services confirmed that the situation is reversible if interventions are made to the mountain in nearby al johnno the government is already building a hospital modern school compound and houses for the new residents. the door has stated that it will help fund the building programme. then look a little better yes we must talk to the women and tell them that in your new house you have a washer and dryer and

columbia pollute the environment. no gran colombia pollutes the environment twenty to thirty times less than the average illegal miner. meaning. you know a little bit in them we have some pollution like all companies you know which however is within the parameters of colombian laws and international ones is. there a year there will be. the effluent from the gram columbia gold factory along with the waste of the small binders falls into a small ravine which is so toxic that it is acquired name everyone calls its cyanide ravine. on its banks gold diggers process to waste one more time trying to find gold in the poisoned waters nor in the dangers of all. that i mean if the mine works we make money with it and build a plant that. was in this work has always taken place here. a lot of people live off this island to protect extracting gold i could i would wind up either. and is there gold where. naturally if there wasn't we wouldn't work. and if they work it again and again and there's always gold left even what we throw aw

but even separate systems pollute the watershed. in developed areas, concrete and other impervious services prevent water from naturally soaking into the land. as the rainwater moves over the roads and concrete expanse, it captures trash and invisible chemicals, sending them straight to the nearest waterway -- untreated. when engineers first designed america's water infrastructure -- the drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems -- they were some of the most advanced in the world. but the infrastructure is growing old. and population growth and development, particularly in urban areas, have made it difficult for original system designs to meet modern health standards and reliably satisfy demand. man: our water and wastewater systems really are engineering marvels. because it's buried, it's invisible to us, and we tend to take it for granted. that's a mistake. like any engineered system, it requires maintenance and periodic rehabilitation, and eventual replacement. it's so out of sight and so out of mind, that we don't reali

the polluted waters will be pushed down. that is the with the rivers will be cleaned up. >> as of the toxic chemicals were not bad enough, a corporation also discharges tons of solid waste in the water. there are no sewage treatment plants. the city relies solely on the flow of the river to wash away the sewage. the magazine concluded harsco pollution made it the worst city to live in the world. they said even more: cities are more livable. it is not just the water. air pollution is 23 times above the standards set by the world health organization. it is difficult to describe the smell of the river. it is a mixture of topic -- toxic chemicals with human feces. it is unbearable. yet millions of people use the river every day. it is the entry point to the capital. those who live in nearby slums dump their garbage in the river. they also washed themselves and their clothing in it. >> it smells, but with so, it's the clothing cleaned. >> authorities have left it to people to care for it. for millions of hindus, the river is sacr

they're still a big polluter but they are taking action. right now ironically they're probably taking more action than the united states. >> ifill: you cover these issues here this washington. you have heard as i have in the last couple of weeks climate change enthusiasts and even some obama administration people saying this is the moment we can move on this. what signs do you see that that may happen? >> it's interesting. i would say that probably the biggest block for some kind of really significant domestic climate change policy in congress is the fact that a lot of republicans are very concerned about the idea of signing on to something that could be an energy tax. there's also a lot of republicans would are skeptical about the idea that climate science is even true, that climate science even exists. republicans control the house. you need 60 votes to get something in the senate. you need 67 votes to get a climate treaty, an international treaty ratified. >> ifill: do you see a movement coming from the white house to kind of boost this?

he has authority under the clean air act to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants. council came out with a study that said he could use existing authority to reduce emission 20% from power plants. that would be a big deal. there are all these efficiency standards locked up in the white house that need to be set free. he could take more leadership role in the pentagon use of clean energy. the pentagon has become a leader but now it's time to expand that. if the president really took an aggressive set of actions we could actually meet this commitment that he made three years ago before the copenhagen negotiations for a 17% reduction in carbon pollution and then we could lead the way for international negotiations. >> eliot: let me just jump in on the clean air act. there is a point that people need to understand. the white house has been pretty good about issuing resolutions leading to new power plants. not existing coal burning plants. even though now regs are good, if you apply those retrospectively to existing coal plants then you would be capturing and harnessing

when it comes to greenhouse gas polluters the general public might think oh established industrial giants and the developing economies as the worst culprits however iran is in the top five carbon emitters at the recent climate change conference to qatar the kyoto protocol was extended but carbon emitters as the united states russia and china chose to opt out iranian why is president mohamed these are this that he's country championed the extension backed by dozens of other nations. mr mohammad is a dan welcome to the show but i'm going to be first off as we've just heard a few days ago qatar hosted koppel eighteen the. eighteen's conference of the parties of the un framework convention on climate change the conference made a decision to extend the kioto protocol after the conference you said that this became possible last few thanks to the efforts of iran but what was the problem what was so difficult to work out a compromise in the name of god and the compassionate the merciful. i'm also very happy to see you and i'm happy that i can address your audience through your show. that what. th

grey waterfalls rushed down its slopes with water polluted by cyanide the waste product of processing poisoning the reverse. my motto is a rich yet filthy place hundreds of generations have dug up the ground here the first being the indigenous peoples of the pre-columbian period the spanish and slave them and put them to work in dark passages my motto is one of the oldest gold mining sites in south america. was the four the oldest municipality in the country it was established in fifteen thirty six traditionally it has been a mining town. it is no exaggeration but the ten thousand citizens of this region live on top of a golden mountain. here on elbow estimates say that approximately nine point eight million ounces of the precious metal is hidden within its bowels. almost everyone here is from a family of gold diggers. people trying to make a living surviving as their ancestors did by digging with chisels and pickaxes deep into the earth. this is the oil we look for in the mine and it has pyrite in it and everything here in the mine you can see it but when it goes through the mill the

well arguably carbon pollution is part of the murray and arguably it is but if it had anything to do with hurricane sandy that is a jacked up g.d.p. grew this is true but quality as as that piece of carbon pollution has that quantity of carbon you can't go down to a store and buy it you can't go out and and tare suggested we should be able to i mean s.e.'s and snap and trade no i'm not actually what i'm suggesting it would work for sulfur dioxide this is george herbert walker bush is plan was to reduce sulfur dioxide reduce the acid rain by by doing a cap and trade on sulfur dioxide he did it and within five six years. so overt acts that way are way down plus the banks are still making money trading well you know how to good for the banks what happened with sulfur dioxide with the grain really respect that they had a really strong cap that ratcheted down the amount of software that could be put it was the essence of cap and trade is over time you reduce the saleability of that product essence of cap yeah right it's the trading component that then is where the banks get to make their

if it's running a loss extend the pollution will spread to a much greater area. and you have more choice and many aquatic ecosystems a rivers lakes will be destroyed. and if i think that in this country gold medal as an environmental cost which is unacceptable. but in order for the company's plan to be implemented the town of moore motto which was declared in one thousand nine hundred two a national historic site of columbia must be a race from the map. and we're going to remove the tell must be moved we must move the town this is something very typical in metallurgy moody you know maybe. i'm seventy years old with it why should i leave here there is no one chasing me out. to live this down it doesn't just have material wealth like gold and silver but. that for us it symbolizes a lot just get bored and we don't believe that the economic ambitions of people who aren't even colombians we should disappear so they can come to mine the gold killing a town which has survived. as a bit be. him . it goes from there are people who are indigenous who are confused political

, automobile and truck pollution, and dangers of overuse of alcohol. so i would say that if the previous speakers were consistent in their logic they would be speaking out for those other three items at the same time as smoking and if you're going to single one item rather than the other three, i have to remind you in good conscience that this is what adolf hitler did, he singled out a certain graup and obviously he made the wrong decision. so let's not follow that same logic. >> mr. paulson. >> (singing) you asked me if i knew my city event was true and i of course replied when you take an exhausting ride, smoke gets in your eyes. and i said some day we'll find a city that really shines and then i applied when you -- this clean air is mine don't let smoke get in your eyes. then some day we'll find a city that really shines and then i of course replied when a city dies smoke gets in your eyes. don't let it get in your eyes and i really wanted to shine and it's going to be divine, smoke gets in your eyes. don't let it. >> thank you. mr. acosta if there'