The Impact of Contaminated Water
What Is Water Pollution?
When dangerous substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, their quality deteriorates and they become toxic for both humans and the environment. This is known as water pollution.
What Are the Causes of Water Pollution?
Particularly susceptible to pollution is water. More substances can be dissolved by water than by any other liquid on earth, earning it the moniker "universal solvent". Kool-Aid and bright blue waterfalls exist because of it. It's also the reason water is so easily contaminated. It is easily dissolved and mixed with toxic compounds from companies, municipalities, and farms, which results in water pollution.
Types of Water Pollution
Groundwater
Groundwater, one of our least visible but most significant natural resources, is created when rainwater falls and seeps down into the earth, filling the fissures, crevices, and porous spaces of an aquifer (essentially an underground reservoir of water). It serves as the sole supply of freshwater for some residents of remote areas. When contaminants enter an aquifer and make it unsuitable for human use, such as trash leached from landfills and septic systems to pesticides and fertilizers, groundwater becomes contaminated. It can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible, to purge toxins from groundwater. An aquifer that has been contaminated might not be usable for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. As groundwater seeps into streams, lakes, and seas, it can potentially disperse contaminants far from the original contaminating source, which is why commercial water treatment is important.
Surface water
Surface water, which makes up around 70% of the planet, is what gives our oceans, lakes, rivers, and all those other blue areas on the globe their blue color. More than 60% of the water distributed to American houses is surface water from freshwater sources, meaning sources other than the ocean. But a sizable portion of that water is in danger. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's most recent national water quality surveys show that more than one-third of our lakes and more than half of our rivers and streams are contaminated and unsafe for swimming, fishing, or drinking. The most prevalent kind of contamination in these freshwater sources is nutrient pollution, which includes nitrates and phosphates. Although these nutrients are necessary for plants and animals to develop, farm waste and fertilizer runoff have turned them into significant contaminants. Toxins are also contributed by the discharge of municipal and industrial garbage. Additionally, there is all the unorganized trash that businesses and individuals dump directly into rivers.
Ocean water
80% of marine pollution, also known as ocean pollution, comes from land, whether it is far inland or near the coast. From farms, factories, and towns, streams and rivers transport pollutants like chemicals, fertilizers, and heavy metals into our bays and estuaries, where they are then transported out to sea. The wind also brings in marine waste, particularly plastic, as does water from storm drains and sewage systems. Additionally, both large and little oil spills and leaks occasionally pollute our waters, which are also continuously absorbing carbon pollution from the atmosphere. Up to 25% of carbon emissions caused by humans are absorbed by the ocean.
Point source
Point source pollution is defined as contamination that comes from a single source. Examples include wastewater (sometimes called effluent) discharged by a manufacturer, an oil refinery, or a wastewater treatment facility, as well as contamination from leaky septic systems, chemical and oil spills, and unlawful dumping. The EPA controls point source pollution by placing restrictions on what facilities are allowed to discharge directly into bodies of water. Point source pollution comes from a single location, yet it can have an impact on miles of waterways and the ocean.
Nonpoint source
Pollution from dispersed sources is referred to as nonpoint source pollution. These could consist of agricultural runoff, stormwater runoff, or trash that has been blown into streams from the land. The main cause of water pollution in U.S. waters is nonpoint source contamination, yet it's challenging to control because there isn't one specific offender.
Transboundary
It should go without saying that a line drawn on a map cannot be used to limit water contamination. Contaminated water from one nation leaking into the waters of other results in transboundary contamination. A catastrophe, such as an oil spill, or the gradual creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal waste can cause contamination.