Water Quality

Water Cycledrought

contamination

desalination

Drinking water

H20 fresh waterflood

salt water

clouds

evaporation

agriculture

Keep Your Head Above Water

Unsafe and polluted drinking

water is a major cause for

concern worldwide. As the

number of individuals lacking

regular access to clean water

supplies grows into the billions

microbial pollutants continue

to cause health problems

across the globe. It remains

quite common for young

children living in developing

countries to die each year

from diseases caused by

impure drinking water as well

as the lack of water for

adequate sanitation.

A growing body of scientific research suggests that

efforts by all individuals are essential to ensuring healthy, clean water. Fertilizers, manure,

automobile oil, and other pollutants flow into rivers and lakes on a continual basis, allowing unsafe

bacteria to thrive, resulting in a lack of oxygen in those

bodies of water.

Must Be Something in the Water

A recent five-month

Associated Press investigation

of drinking-water quality

found concentrations of 56

pharmaceuticals, ranging

from antibiotics to mood

stabilizers, in the water

supplies of at least two dozen

major U.S. metropolitan

areas. Currently, neither

sewage-treatment plants nor

drinking water plants remove

pharmaceuticals from the

water that they process.

come clean

Americans have traditionally been trained to just flush them

down the toilet. When this occurs, trace elements of such medications eventually end up

in drinking water supplies because wastewater plants do not currently treat water for

pharmaceuticals before returning it to nearby bodies of

water for consumption once again.

Watered Down

“We should not be having an argument about how many chemicals a body can stand before something happens…We as a society need to take

these things as warning signals.”-Craig Hafer, Institute for the

Advancement of Children’s Environmental Health

Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal

“P2D2”, a prescription drug disposal program launched as a student assignment at Illinois’ Pontiac Township High

School allows individuals to return any unused drugs to

various pharmacies in order to ensure their

proper disposal.

Currently, the P2D2 program exists in seven states — including 100 Illinois communities — and has already been

responsible for the collection of

approximately 87,500 pounds of drugs in the state of Illinois alone

since the program was launched in early 2008.

A Flood of P2D2

The common practice of fishermen cleaning their catch

along the docks and tossing fish carcasses back into the water,

or construction crews that unintentionally allow sediment-

laden water to discharge off their construction sites, can end

up degrading an area’s water quality.

One Fish, Two Fish…

…Red Fish, Blue Fish

WIn Deep Water

Victims of natural disasters frequently experience a lack of access to clean

drinking water in the aftermath of such tragedies, which frequently renders them

at substantially increased risks of becoming ill or dying.

Aid shipments containing supplies of clean water, purification tablets, and

water purification equipment often take too long to arrive.

A growing body of research

suggests that there is a link

between water quality and

livestock. Bodies of water

surrounding densely packed

livestock operations typically have

higher E. coli levels than other

bodies of water in the same region.

Holy Cow!

The importance of

preventing these

contaminants from

leaking into water

supplies is becoming

even more challenging.

It is well known that lead is

particularly harmful to young

children, infants, and babies in

a woman’s womb. But, while

adults are exposed to levels of

such medications that are well

below a therapeutic dose,

medical researchers now fear

that the “cocktail effect of

mixing different drugs”

through the regular

consumption of drinking water

can also “have detrimental

effects on fetuses.”

They Say, “Go With the Flow”

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

The impact of water pollutants from

agriculture, pharmaceuticals and

other wastes have a great impact

on wildlife as well. Trace quantities

of medication in the water have

caused reproductive problems in

several types of fish, including carp,

fathead minnow, and the razorback

sucker. It has also been discovered

that such contamination has

resulted in various health problems

in wildlife, such as kidney failure in

vultures.

What does the future

hold for our earth’s

water? As more and

more contaminated

water flows into the

ocean, will it have an

effect on the quality of

water available for

desalination? Will it

jeopardize the

ecosystems of the

ocean?

Swimming with the Sharks

Many experts have predicted

that wars in the 21st

century will be fought over access to

quality water sources.

Exploration into new forms of water treatment processes and alternative water supplies must continue.

Water conscious

efforts by all can go a long way toward

ensuring that there is far less pollution in the coming years.