Essay On Water Contamination In America

In the fourth chapter, “Fouling Our Own Nests,” of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to do About It, Robert Glennon discusses the dangers of water contamination that plague many parts of the United States. His main claim that water pollution requires the help of the entire population stems from an unmentioned warrant: contaminating the national water supply with chemicals from individual communities and industries is detrimental to American society. In order to strengthen his argument, Glennon showcases the impacts of local contamination issues on larger populations and utilizes quantitatively intimidating statistics to solidify his position and inspire his readers to fight for better water regulation.

A documentary is informative if it tells you new and interesting information about the topic the documentary is on. “Finding Home: Utah's Refugee Story” is informative because it tells the audience interesting information like how you have to go through an interview to become an American citizen ( "Apply for Citizenship" 1 ). “Living Without Water: Contamination Nation” is equally as informative because it too gives interesting information on its topic.

Flint in Michigan is located 70 Miles away from the shores of large fresh water bodies, the Great Lakes. Despite this close proximity to the fresh water bodies, the residents have not been able to get the clean water. The water supply of Flint in Michigan in the United States has undergone serious water contamination crisis. The water crisis started in April 2014 (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, 2016). The contamination of drinking water began when the source of water was changed from the treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. This later led to a serious contamination of the water due to lead contamination hence creating more danger in the public health. The Flint River had a corrosive nature and caused lead from the old pipes to leach into the water supply. This caused heavy metals in the water supply. This posed serious health problems. For example, six thousand to twelve thousand children were exposed to the contaminated water. The blood-lead level in children increased. The alteration in the water source was the main reason behind the water crisis in Flint.

We all know there is something in the water. In June 1969, there was an oil slick on the Cuyahoga River which was a turning point in American attitudes about water pollution. It wasn't the first time a U.S. river had caught fire; the Cuyahoga had already burned nine times since the Civil War but it came at a time when environmental issues were already in the

The Midwestern region of the United States, such a small corner of the world, is notorious for its prosperous agriculture and its abundant livestock population. Citizens of the Midwest, and consequently, the United States, rarely have to worry about where meals will come from or when the next time water will be available. Water fountains are a common sight within public places, specifically schools and workplaces, and each system reliably produces water at the touch of a button, every time, without fail. However, what happens when the dependability of water in the Midwest is compromised? Over the past decade, the water quality in Flint, Michigan, a town very close to Iowan homes, has seen a rapid decadence, given that the Flint River has been exposed to “the presence of fecal coliform bacteria, low dissolved oxygen, plant nutrients, oils, and other toxic substances,” though the main focus has

“The United States has more than 330 million acres of agricultural land that produce an abundant supply of food and other products. American agriculture is noted worldwide for its high productivity, quality, and efficiency in delivering goods to the consumer. When improperly managed, however, activities from working farms and ranches can affect water quality” (EPA).

“Any measure of a successful society — low mortality, economic diversity, productivity, and public safety — is in some way related to access to safe water. Every day, safe water is available for eating and cooking, bathing, clothes washing, and a myriad of other purposes”(MMW, 2017). In America where water is at just about every turn of a facet, we don’t always think about how fortunate we are to have amazing access to water. Subsequently, we are much less likely to think about what’s in our water. The Milwaukee area has a few different concerns pertaining to the water quality which effects Milwaukee area residents, lakes and rivers. Milwaukee water quality influences a large population of people since the City of Milwaukee-owned public utility

The human body is contained mostly of water. Plants and animals will stop to exist without water. Water is used in transportation, cleaning, and other walks of life. It is not hard to figure out that water is one of the planet’s most valuable useful things (Bottcher 2012). However, the previously-mentioned walks of life create many of the concerns connected with the consumption of water. Water contamination is a hot topic in America. Americans are concerned with the contaminants that may be waiting in a creepy way their tap

     Hazardous wastes are another problem for the water in our world. These wastes are toxic, reactive, corrosive or ignitable. Most problems come from humans not storing the substance properly or not disposing of it correctly. This can be easily proven in 1969, when the Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, Ohio, caught on fire and burned for sometime. Since this happened environmentalists have taken extreme measures to reduce the amount of pollution that is coming out of the power plants that are on the river and on Lake Erie.

Three main ways our public drinking waters can become contaminated are by agricultural runoff, which have effects that go all the way from the effects of the remnants left behind from sprayed pesticides and unmanaged animal feces. Second, we have an oil and coal industry that just never stops. What comes from our oil industry ultimately ends up changing and altering the biology of the surrounding water with thermal pollution, and in some cases I have seen this reported as just as if not more damaging than bacterial or sedimentary pollution. The coal industry pollutes surrounding waters with sulfides from leaching. Illustrations are given below.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) founds the elementary structure for regulating releases of contaminants into the water bodies of the US and also for surface waters it regulates quality standards. The origin of the CWA was passed in 1948 and was named the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, then the Act was suggestively reorganized and prolonged in 1972. as "Clean Water Act" this became the Act 's communal name after amendments in 1972.Further down to CWA, EPA has applied other pollution control agendas such as for industry, the setting wastewater standards. We similarly have set some water quality standards for all pollutants in surface waters.

It is often believed that unsafe drinking water is strictly a critical health issue in impoverished third world countries. However, in recent years in the United States, one of the most developed countries in the world, we are experiencing multiple incidences of widespread public water contamination. In 2014, news stations across America were flooded with the devastating water crisis in Flint, Michigan and though this is the most recent occurrence, it is not an isolated incident. Though Flint was the most widely recognized incident, in the same year two other distressing cases of unsafe tap water also occurred in two other United States cities. While several of these cases of water contamination in the U.S. have been unintentional, other

All around the world, countries are fighting to keep their drinking water clean. Whether it’s streams, rivers, or lakes, countries have taken great measures to maintain high quality drinking water for both human consumption and animal consumption. Countries must first understand the sources of the polltion, then determine the best methods to eliminate the pollution. Clean drinking water is a valuable resource and a the key to human survival. Plants and animals also depend on water for their growth, so all water must be kept clean. The major contributors to water pollution can be classified in three categories, industrial, agricultural and municipal.

In 1972 the Clean Water Act (CWA) was passed, and it established the infrastructure for waste-water management in the U.S. The CWA’s main objective is to ‘recover and preserve the physical, biological, and chemical purity of water. The CWA formed a program that would ensure communities had clean water by limiting the exposure of contaminants in U.S. waterways. Waste-water treatment is essential to the world because it gives people ability to use streams and rivers for swimming, fishing and drinking water. In the early part of the 20th century, pollution in the U.S. urban waterways caused negative side effects like fish kills, low dissolved oxygen, bacterial contamination, and algal blooms. Early attempts of controlling water pollution kept human waste from contaminating water supplies or reduced floating junk that hindered shipping. Problems with Pollution and control were mainly local concerns. Industrial and population growth have increased the requirement for natural resources, changing the situation drastically. Advancements in decreasing pollution can hardly keep in front of the increase in population, development of technology, adjustments in industrial processes, business breakthroughs, increased land use, and several other factors. The growth in both the variety and quantity of goods manufactured has greatly altered the size and complexity of waste produced by industries and it challenges standard treatment technology. The use of pesticides and commercial

Ten pathogens of interest that are commonly causative agent in drinking water disease were identified to be included in the cost-benefit analysis: Campylobacter sp., Salmonella sp., E. coli O157:H7, Adenovirus, Rotavirus, Hepatitis A, Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia sp., Norovirus, and Legionella. Infection rates, incident cases, acute gastrointestinal (AGI) cost per case, sequelae rates and cost per case, and mortality rates and cost per case were identified for each of the ten identified pathogens. When data was unavailable, an estimate was made based on relevant data identified in the literature. Those values were then used to calculate the annual costs associated with AGI illness cases and the number of cases and total annual costs