The Importance Of Pollution Of Water

Problems and Potential Solutions Stormwater pollution can greatly impact our quality of life whether it be directly or indirectly. Pollution from storm water runoff can have a negative impact on our drinking water, recreational waters, and water that we use for irrigation. Pollution to our waters can affect fish, wildlife, and plant life of all kinds. There can also be potential for negative impacts on human life if people are swimming in or drinking polluted water. One issue we face in my area, Columbia, SC is an impairment for E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria. We have traced a lot of this pollution back to wildlife, such as heavy populations of geese that inhabit an area.

Water is probably the most important resource we as people have. Humans can survive without food for several weeks, but without water we would die in less than a week. On a slightly less dramatic note, millions of liters of water are needed every day worldwide for washing, irrigating crops, and cooling industrial processes, not to mention leisure industries such as swimming pools and water-sports centers. Despite our dependence on water, we use it as a dumping ground for all sorts of waste, and do very little to protect the water supplies we have.

A centerpiece of the water quality battle is the North Raccoon, where the water runoff from farms is ruining the river. In the article, “The North Raccoon: A River of Controversy and Undiscovered Beauty,” Mike Kilen (2017) claims, Steve Roe of Panora

I conducted a survey of Pulaski county residents to get their opinion about the Pulaski county water supply. The purpose of the survey is to get others viewpoint of Pulaski County drinking water so that we can improve our waters system. In the Article “Arkansas Rivers is Too Polluted to Touch” written on April 24, 2000, it states “The river is fairly clean as it flows into Wichita, but by the time it leaves the city, the water is so dirty it is not safe for wading, fishing and touching, said Tom Stiles, chief of the office of planning and prevention at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The river also is not safe for canoeing, kayaking or water skiing.” Have Arkansas Rivers improved within 14 years? This question will help us to see how far Arkansas Rivers have come since the year 2000. According to Carl Safina in “Song for the Blue Ocean” he discussed how pollution can interfere with not only wildlife and aquatic animals, but humans as well. Pollution can get into our water system causing bacteria and diseases. These waters are the same that runs in our faucets and pipelines. I will discuss resent studies of central Arkansas water quality later in the survey report.

It has came to mind that the Big Sioux River located in the Eastern Part of South Dakota is a very polluted river. It is so polluted that its the 13th highest polluted water source in the United States. Therefore the people around this river, this is a very important to the people around because this is there main water source. People may ask why is this river so polluted and its because of the toxic waste from us humans. Every time you go to the bathroom all this waste ends up going into the river and even when you take a shower all the chemicals that go in your hair or for your body from the soap end up going into the river.

Water pollution, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, “happens when toxic substances enter water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans and so on, getting dissolved in them, lying suspended in the water or depositing on the bed.”1 In 1948, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed by congress, but was later amended in 1972 in response to great public outcry—this amended document is what is now known as the Clean Water Act.2 Despite these national efforts, in a report released by the Environment America Research & Policy Center in 2014, Virginia was listed as one of the top five states with the largest discharge of toxic substances into waterways, documented at over eleven million pounds.3 Furthermore, in a 2014 report conducted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, it was found that the water pollution has spread throughout sixteen-thousand miles of the state’s rivers.4

In the seriousness of diminishing water quality, “In 2006, Milwaukee Riverkeeper established a network of trained citizen-science volunteers who monitor streams and rivers throughout the Milwaukee River Basin during the months of May through October. Our volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program is part of the statewide Water Action Volunteers (WAV) Stream Monitoring Program managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and University of Wisconsin-Extension (UWEX)”(Milwaukee RiverKeeper, 2017).

Water pollution is defined as “a change in the chemical, physical and biological health of a waterway due to human activity” (1). Over the past 50 years, pollution in the Great Lakes has been a rising concern. Pollution in the Great Lakes includes the disposal of sewage, heavy metals, invasive species, and pesticides that come from factory dumping, runoff of agriculture, nautical transportation, and air pollution. According to an article published by the US Department of Commerce, roughly 40 million people depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water, sport, power (electricity), and transportation (McCartney). The negative consequences of water pollution include, but are not limited to, the killing off of vital organisms, an increase in birth defects, infertility, malfunctioning nervous systems, and learning disabilities (McCartney).

For nearly my whole life, my family and I have lived beachside near the popular tourist attraction Ron Jon’s in Cocoa Beach, Florida. With that being said, since the beach lures in many tourists, these tourists dispose of their trash irresponsibly and in many scenarios the trash ends up in the ocean polluting the water. Furthermore, water pollution is significant to acknowledge because due to the pollution, there are typically negative consequences that follow interfering with the surrounding marine life or the environment in general. For instance, sometimes runoffs occur that later contaminate the water fabricating toxic fungal blooms within the body of water. When this happens, it has been believed that cancer levels rise in the area from this occurrence worsening the health of humans nearby in the surrounding community. Also, sometimes when pollutants enter bodies of water the overall temperature rises. This raise in temperature easily creates ecological dead zones where fish are forced to evacuate the area in search of cooler waters where they can survive and thrive properly. Therefore, different modes of media that aid the process in explaining water pollution and its effects include environmental documentaries, more specifically one titled “Troubled Water” by Paul Manly, educational song covers, which include “Clean It Up” to the tune of the song “Lips are Movin” by Meghan Trainor, and news articles, like the New York Times piece titled ““A Sea of Health and

When a person is asked what water is, the first things that they say are; water is drinkable, used for showers, simple, washing, etc.. But people don’t really know how complex and important water is for our kind. Water is one of the most precious things we humans have, but we don’t realize it and we damage it without caring for the consequences. Water and water pollution are two things that we should all have in mind. Even though we see water as just a liquid, but there’s more to it than its form or state.

The health of the streams and rivers in Missouri is slowly being jeopardized, and it is having a major impact on my life. Two-thirds of Missouri’s river systems are vulnerable to pollution and development. Irresponsible and uncaring polluters dump garbage into streams, not thinking of the effect it has on the environment. Developers destroy wetlands and rivers to build shopping malls, outlet stores, and various other profit-producing chain stores, and there is hardly a thing environmentalists can do about it. The small waterways being polluted and destroyed have an even larger effect, as most of them directly connect and feed the Meramec, Current, and other precious rivers that sustain cherished aquatic life in Missouri.

Currently, water pollution is a major issue in the US. There is pollution in our oceans, and our rivers due to coal-fired power plants. This pollution is getting into the US drinking water, which makes it unsafe to use. Some of the major public health issues currently are alcohol-related harms, food safety, healthcare-associated infections, heart disease and stroke, HIV, Motor vehicle injury, nutrition, physical activity and obesity, and prescription drug overdose.

The quality of water in the Great Lakes not only effects the different species living in the lakes, but human health, all over Canada as well. “The five lakes occupy an area greater than half a billion square kilometers, have a shoreline of 17,000 kilometers, and are surrounded by a population of over 33 million.” (Sproule-Jones, Mark., 2002.) With the lakes being so massive there are plenty of different species living in them and people surrounding the lakes, living off the water. These factors make poor water quality an even bigger issue. Pollution can be seen in many forms; such as fecal contamination, toxic contamination from metals, nitrates and pesticides,

CAUSE Thirdly, a business is the path for people to earn money, but the setback many business endeavors face is hurting the world in which they live. Industrial Pollution derives from companies destructing water supplies in their path to supply their wallets. As reported by an Issues and Controversies article, “Water Pollution,” nuclear power plants which run on uranium and thorium induce radioactive materials that end up in water supplies. These substances should not be found in what people drink, for it causes disease. The EPA indicates that 72% of the toxic water pollution in America derives from coal fueled power plants. Interestingly, only four out of 5 coal plants in the US face any limitation. Under this circumstance, no second thought

70 % of our Earth surface is covered by water and almost 60% of the human body contain water for nutrient transportation. The unique characteristic of water is water molecule is the only substance in this Earth that exist in all three physical states of matter which are solid, liquid and gas. All human beings need water to survive. The national development over the years cause the rate of water pollution increased. According to Gebre & Rooijen (2009) water pollution can be considered as a sign that derives from economic growth and is a common phenomenon in urbanized cities in developing countries. In general, there are three main issues that related to water pollution which are the causes, effects and the way to decrease this problem.