Water is essential for life and plays a vital role in proper functioning of Earth's ecosystem. Water pollution has turned into a major global problem in the United States. According to a survey conducted in March 2009 by Gallup- the top environmental concern in the United States is Water Pollution. Drinking water contamination is not the only concern; around half of Americans also express a high degree of worry about pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, water and soil contamination from toxic waste (52%). About another half worry about the maintenance of the nation's supply of fresh water for household needs (49%) (Saad.L, 2009)
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) published an atlas depicting America's most polluted waters in 2000. The maps reveal that water in each state does not meet the state water quality standards. The atlas accounted for 300,000 miles of river and streams and more than 5 million acres of polluted lakes. It has been reported that majority of the Americans live within 10 miles of these polluted waters. Being so close to the polluted waters, it surely affects every aspect of our life.
National Water Quality Inventory Report has reported that about 44 percent of stream lines, 64 percent of lake acres, 30 percent of estuarine square miles are not clean enough for swimming and fishing. 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste are discharged in U.S water annually. The US EPA has warned that sewage levels in rivers would reach back to the super-polluted levels of the 1970s by the year 2016.
It has been suggested that water pollution is the leading cause of death (West. L, 2006).Over 3 million people die each year, in nearly all developing countries. According to Cornell University study water pollution accounts for 80 percent of all infectious diseases. In a report of WHO and UNICEF in the year 2000, unsafe water has been reported to cause 4 billion cases of diarrhea each year, and resulted in 2.2 million deaths, it was mostly the children under 5 years of age. This means that 15% of child deaths each year are attributable to diarrhea, meaning a child is dying every 15 seconds.
Water pollution is caused by two main sources that are point and non point sources. Point sources are directly emitted into a body of water. They include factories, wastewater treatment facilities, septic systems, and other sources that are clearly discharging pollutants into water sources. Non-point sources are difficult to identify, much more difficult to monitor and control. Some examples include sediment, fertilizer, chemicals and animal wastes from farms, fields, construction sites and mines.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has identified the categories that cause water pollution. The categories include Biodegradable wastes including human and animal wastes, plant nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates which enter the water through sewage, life stock, and fertilizer run off. Phosphates and nitrates can also be found in Industrial wastes. Another cause of water pollution is Sediment. Water gets polluted due to the sediment runoff which occurs when the top soil is eroded and washed into the river, streams and lakes. Sediment can cause large problems, as it may clog municipal water systems, suffocate aquatic life, and cause water to become more and more turbid. Turbid water can cause thermal pollution, because cloudy water would absorb more solar radiation.
Other causes of water pollution are the hazardous and toxic chemicals which are discharged by the industries. It has been reported by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) that 5.7 billion kilograms of pollutants are released from industries in Canada, Mexico and the United States. In addition to direct releases to water, a minimum of 133 million kilograms of pollutants were transferred to sewage and/or wastewater treatment systems.
According to the New York Times analysis of federal data , more than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have violated the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years. In accordance to this law, it requires the communities to provide safe drinking water. But since 2004, the water provided to people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or there was presence of radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria was also found in sewage. Studies has shown that drinking water contamination leads to many instances of illness (Duhigg C, 2009).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 900,000 people get sick and 900 die every year in the United States because of waterborne microbial infections. Some examples of such organisms would be E.coli, cryptosporidium, giardia, hepatitis A and pfiesteria. As reported from American Society for Microbiology, said. "Control of water pollution in the United States over the past two decades has focused on chemical risks, overshadowing the significant risks associated with microbial pollutants,"
A major outbreak on drinking water pollution by cryptosporidium has been reported in Milwaukee. The probability of an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis occurring in drinking water systems, relative to that of bacterial and viral pathogens, is significant due to the resistant nature of oocysts to concentrations of disinfectants routinely used in drinking-water treatment (Lisle J.T and Rose J.B, 1995). From 1990 to 2000, there has been atleast10 cryptosporidiosis outbreaks associated with contaminated drinking water reported in the United States (Moore A.C et al., 1993).
Cryptosporidium is a common cause of infectious gastroenteritis which characteristically results in a watery diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, as well as anorexia, fatigue, joint pain, headache, fever, and vomiting (Hunter PR et al., 2004). In 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidiosis outbreak, within the span of two weeks about 403,000 people were affected the pathogen. At least 104 deaths have been attributed to this outbreak (Hoxie J.N et al., 1997). This outbreak of water borne not only affects the health of people but also increases the health care costs. The total cost of outbreak-associated illness was $96.2 million: $31.7 million in medical costs and $64.6 million in productivity losses (Corso S.P et al., 2003).
In order to protect the public from the infections caused by unsafe drinking water, Environmental Protection Agency implements certain regulations on the Nation's drinking water. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to set national standards for drinking water to protect against both naturally-occurring and man-made contaminants that may be found in drinking water. The Safe Drinking Water Act is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water. SDWA was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. This law was amended in 1986 and 1996 and made it a requirement to include more actions in protecting drinking water and its sources. In addition to the SDWA , there are other drinking water acts which are under development, namely National Primary Drinking Water Regulation and Total Coliform.
Drinking water suppliers are attempting to develop and implement effective ways to supply safe water. Multi-barrier techniques, including source water protection, followed by filtration and disinfection in the treatment plant, plus a distribution system disinfectant residual, are considered the best approach. EPA has also implemented Clean water act to regulate the discharges of pollutants into waters of United States which leads to regulation of quality of surface waters. There are new researches being conducted in order to gain more methods to ensure safe water to the public.
U.S EPA is taking all the necessary steps to ensure safe water. The major challenge as reported by the draft report by EPA is balancing the burgeoning public needs with dwindling supplies. All possible efforts are being taken to mitigate the problem of water pollution. Concentrated and organized efforts by people and governments of all nations of the world will help in minimizing the problem.
