protest against water polluting!?

Question

I live in Cincinnati, Ohio and there is an oil refinery that is polluting the Ohio River with their wastes. I am trying to get people to petition against it, but I need reasons why it is affecting the community and nature. I think, to do a convincing letter, I need to Explain the amount of fresh water available on the Earth for our use versus salt and frozen water, give reasons how my community uses or needs fresh water supplied by this river, give negative consequences of polluting the water in this river, and describe two additional water resources downstream that will be
affected. However I suck at geography and all that stuff and I need your help-any ideas? Here it is again.

Explain the amount of fresh water available on the Earth for our use versus salt and frozen water

Give reasons how my community uses or needs fresh water supplied by this river
Give negative consequences of polluting the water in this river
Describe two additional water resources downstream that will be

Answer 1

What pollutant and who and what is the pollutant hurting?

You need to identify the pollutant that is doing the polluting. You need to state what beneficial use is being impaired because of the pollutant. You then need to contact your local and state agency in charge of water quality to get them to stop polluting. I provided you the link for the complaint form. If the government isn't being responsive, find an advocacy group to help you out.

Answer 2

How do you know the oil refinery is polluting the Ohio river? If you know this to be a fact, then call the EPA and let them know. That is the government agency tasked with enforcing those laws. If the refinery is within limits of pollution, and you still think it is too much, you need to convince some Congressmen to change the law.
Of course communities all up and down the Ohio river use the river as a source of fresh water and from Cincinnati to New Orleans is probably at least a thousand miles. That would be a LOT of pollution!

Answer 3

For this problem you need not take into account the whole worlds datas but should collect local data with water tests showing difference in quality of water in areas near the oil plant and areas at a distance. If water near the refinery is polluted or had hard metals this can be a good reason to oppose them.

You can check for living beings / animals / wildlife in and around the refinery area and also at some distance and see for diffrence again. If you find that local ecology is being disturbed this can be another reason for opposing them.

You can also check for air pollution, noise pollution and any other kind of pollution which are on higher side than permitted and effecting us humans or even wildlife in the area. It has been seen when it comes to harm us or our children we humans tend to oppose but we should also look for har happening to wildlife as they are the first to get affected and we the next.