How Public Drinking Waters Can Be Contaminated

Not only is pollution the cause of the death of many organisms essential to ecological balance, but human drinking water has also been affected.

I would like to offer my comments involving an EPA regulation and how it can be improved. I believe that the Safe Drinking Water Act is not producing water that is safe enough for all Americans to drink, while leading many to believe that the water that they are drinking is as clean as possible. This is shown very clearly by the water that is produced in Flint, Michigan. This water is visibly discolored by the lead and other contaminants that are in the water and there a=have been many reports of children and adults who are suffering some serious symptoms of lead-poisoning. Despite these very real negative effects of the lack of proper filterage of this water, there is very little that can be done because the water technically meets the standards that are put out by the Safe Drinking and Water Act.

While steps have been taken by the government to help bring standards to water treatment and wastewater treatment plants some of the contaminants seep into the water supply after it has been filtered. The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued standards for drinking water with policies like the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, but the standards are not foolproof and some municipalities are not in compliance with the standards. Another problem is the cost of setting up better filtration systems to catch some of the contaminants that are not being filtered at the present time.

There has been an increased presence within the water of toxic chemicals, metals, and disease causing microorganisms throughout the years. In general, the main cause of water pollution is the sewage pipes as well as the factories which are slowly becoming more in control. Although the contamination of water has slowly began to be stopped there is still heavy contamination from the waterways from the farmlands which tend to carry fertilizers, pesticides, as well as organic matter. Rain is a major contributor to water contamination from the different acids and heavy metals which fall with the rain contribute to the water

The purpose of my experiment is to find a good way to extract oil from water. My reason for asking this question is because I love animals and I want to keep them safe. Also, when I went on a whale watching trip I loved watching them jump with their calves in the blue waters and I don't want the whales dying just because we aren't careful about what we put in the ocean.

Domestic wells are usually shallower than public wells and are more susceptible to contamination from surface waters (Kumar et al., 2010). From 1971-2008, private wells were responsible for 67 percent (n=40) of reported outbreaks from groundwater (Wallender et al., 2013). Contamination of the groundwater that feeds drinking water wells results from infiltration from rivers, septic tank leach fields, and leaking sewer lines (all sewer lines leak). Cross contamination with septic system wastes due to poor design, maintenance or improper spacing is listed as the primary cause. Contamination of groundwater is reportedly widespread (Auld et al., 2004; Curriero et al., 2001; Fong et al., 2007; Thomas et al., 2006; Tornevi et al., 2015) and

The recent uproar over the sensitive issue of global climate change has aggressively expanded our government’s ever growing power over the American people. Through the government program too well known as the Environmental Protection Agency, our federal government has made environmental decisions effecting the American people numerous times without our consent. Our current Democratic President and his administration don’t help matters any, since they tend to give in when extreme environmentalists persistently push for these ideas. Needless to say, the Obama Administration’s ongoing force for drastic changes to environmental standards has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to gain an alarming amount of power, and it is now resulting in harmful effects to many innocent American citizens.

Did you know that, drinking contaminated water can cause diseases such as hepatitis? Poising may be caused by toxins that have leached into well water supplies. Materials from the lands surface can move through soil and end up in the groundwater. Wildlife can also be harmed by contaminated groundwater. Over 50% of the United States population depends on groundwater for drinking water. It can be related to waste disposal, land disposal of solid waste and brine disposal from the petroleum industry.

To start, what is water contamination, where does it happen, who does it involve and affect, why and how does it happen? Water contamination and pollution are “when harmful substances, or pollutants, build up in water and contaminate it” (Parks 5). Water can actually handle small portions at a time of pollutants because of weathering. Weathering is a process when water “cleans” itself, getting rid of the pollutants (Parks 5). Humans, though, overload this process by dumping pollutants faster than nature can handle (Parks 6). Water contamination and pollution can occur almost anywhere. “Lakes, streams, rivers, estuaries, and oceans, as well as groundwater, can all be contaminated with substances that interfere with the beneficial use of the water” (Water Pollution Para. 1). This quote is pretty much saying that if there is body of water, can be polluted or contaminated. The same really goes for who is involved

Many Americans may suffer from drinking contaminated water and not even know it. For example, In Flint Michigan, they were once getting a nice clean water supply from Lake Huron, but they had to pay the city of Detroit. So the city council decided they could cut costs by using the water from the Flint River. The river was known to the local people as filthy and thought that it was a joke switching to the river water. Once they switched their water supply to the river they had noticed the water was brown and looked dirty. After testing they found out the river water was nineteen times more corrosive compared to the Lake Huron water since it so corrosive it eats at the water. With 50% of the water lines in Flint Michigan being lead this also

As long as humans have been on the earth disposal of sewage as been an ongoing fight. In the Middle Ages sewage was just disposed of on the streets. Gutters were lined with feces which intern would mix with the water supplies and create diseases and provided substances for rodents and ticks that spread the black plague killing one-third of Europe. It wasn’t until the 19th century a correlation was made between contaminated water and disease which leads to the sewage system. From there the ideas grew and different methods came about such as a septic system. A septic system is a type of underground well that receives human sanitary waste through three stages septic tank distribution box and absorption field. In the septic tank human sewage is

The United States is heading to Third World country status in warp speed after the findings of the Flint water crisis. Have you ever imagined that the United States would have an issue of water contamination within our own water supply systems? The Flint water crisis was an act of ignorance and a water war between City of Flint and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). The greatest water war in Michigan’s history was contributed to vast pollutions of water. In April 2014, Flint started using the Flint River as it new water source. A state expert said, "The quality of the water being put out meets all of our drinking water standards, and Flint water is safe to drink” (Bosman, J., Davey, M., & Smith, M., 2016). General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan also complained that the water was corroding new car parts and even stopped using Flint water in October 2014. Flint water contributed to the mass poisoning of over 100,000 Flint

These sources are tricky to accurately identify, because once someone pollutes, even inadvertently, the toxins travel into the water supply in runoff. Rainfall, melting snow, and irrigation are examples as to how runoff transfers contaminants into streams and lakes. To mitigate and potentially stop this damage, ecoengineers make recommendations to government agencies about how to reduce NPS pollution. It takes many years for this pollution type to adversely affect the ecosystem and just as many years to repair the damage. NPS pollution is the biggest water pollution problem in the United States. The EPA cannot quantify the exact damage caused by nonpoint source pollution, but it cites that these contaminants taint drinking water, can make water features unsafe and injure marine

A black dot indicates the highest contamination, and a red dot shows a moderate contamination in Fig. 5. After calculating the total population of people in the black and red dots, the total amount of children affected by the drinking water was found. A total of 2,930 children consumes water with high levels of arsenic daily in Nebraska. (See Table B). Most of these locations are along the Platte River and the Republic River Basin.

The inception of U.S. Environmental policy most notably began under the Presidency of Richard Nixon; Nixon oversaw the passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Water Act of 1972, in particular, enacted stringent laws to prevent pollutants from entering navigable waters, outlawing open sewers from dumping crud into a local stream and the law also protects land that filters and purifies water as it flows by. The Landmark law passed in 1972, however, has not impeded the pending water crisis facing the U.S. today. The United States must take immediate measures in order to combat the problem; given that the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence now ranks water scarcity as a top threat to national security; right next to Terrorism (Sullivan). The United States should reform the Clean Water Act of 1972 to look for any deficiencies in the law.