The old saying is "you are what you eat." However, you may also be what you drink. Water quality monitoring aims to minimize the concentration of harmful chemicals in drinking water and many government agencies strive to ensure that certain standards are maintained to prevent various types of cancer and nerve damage. Moreover, humans are not the only ones threatened by poor water quality, as many ecosystems are sensitive to degraded waters.
Contamination
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act, which aims to reduce harmful chemicals and toxins from drinking water in the interest of public health. Water samples from wells, groundwater and reservoirs are routinely analyzed for chemicals such as arsenic, nitrate, lead, mercury and pesticides. E. coli, a bacterial contaminant, originates from human and cattle waste that can infiltrate ground water and wells. Nitrate moves easily through soil and water, and is another common pollutant in many drinking water supplies.
Sources
With the exception of pesticides and pharmaceuticals, many contaminants of drinking water are naturally occurring and can be detected at concentrations low enough not cause severe health effects. However, with increasing industrial and agricultural production, more and more pollutants are finding their way into drinking water supplies, increasing the need to continued water quality monitoring. Nitrate is a common constituent of fertilizer; however, it is typically applied is amounts that exceeded a particular plant's requirements. Excessive fertilization leads to nitrate being washed away from agricultural fields during rain and increases the probability of ground water becoming contaminated.
Health Effects
At low enough levels, many contaminants will have no effect on public health. However, certain chemicals, such as mercury and beryllium, can have devastating effects, even at low concentrations. Both mercury and beryllium are by-products from various refineries and factories, and can result in severe kidney damage and intestinal lesions. Other chemicals, such as nitrate, require higher concentrations for noticeable effects. Nitrate has been linked to blue-baby syndrome and shortness of breath, which can be fatal in infants and the elderly.
Environmental Effects
Heavy metals and fertilizers also stress environmental health, which in turn can lead to more public health concerns. Streams and lakes polluted with the same heavy metals that cause human health effects experience declines in fish populations and loss of aquatic plant biodiversity. When excessive nitrate enters aquatic systems, algal growth becomes rapid and available oxygen becomes consumed as these organisms die and decompose. As the oxygen disappears, aquatic animals and suffocate if oxygen is not reintroduced into the water in time. At the mouth of the Mississippi River, the cumulative loading of nitrogen from the Midwest contributes to the large-scale hypoxia, regions of low oxygen, throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
Solutions
Technology is increasingly becoming more efficient at detecting and removing contaminants from drinking water. One way to help out locally is to minimize the amount of fertilizer applied to residential lawns. This reduces the amount of nitrate that can be washed away to nearby streams. Using home filtration devices can give an additional level of safety in tap water, and boiling tap water also kills several kinds of bacteria and microorganisms that are potentially hazardous.
Member Comments