Poison once flowed in America's waters. With Trump, it might again | Peter Gleick

Over the past four decades, a huge amount of effort has gone into cleaning America's heavily polluted waters. Is all of that progress about to be undone?

• Peter Gleick is a member of the US National Academy of Science and the president-emeritus of Pacific Institute

As a scientist working for decades on national and global water and climate challenges, I must speak out against what I see as an assault on America's water resources.

I grew up in New York in the 1960s hearing about massive Polychlorinated Biphenyl - a toxic chemical used as a coolant - contamination in the Hudson River and the threatened extinction of bald eagles and ospreys from eating contaminated fish.