REPORT17

__What's in Your Drinking Water? Introduction:__ In 1999 there was an E-coli outbreak in the water of a town in upstate New York. Over one thousand people fell ill due to the contamination of the water and several people died. All people are dependent upon water, and pay for clean and uncontaminated water to be delivered to their homes each and everyday. Chemicals and harmful bacteria in the water can have severe consequences on the health of the United States’ population. This recent outbreak brings up concerns about what our drinking water actually contains, what effect these chemicals have on the health of the people who drink them, how these chemicals made their way into the water, and what we can do to begin providing increasingly clean water to the population. Thankfully an independent study run by the Natural Resource Defense Council, testing the quality of drinking water in cities across the United States’ holds the answers to some of these questions. __Part I—What’s in our drinking water?:__ Most cities have mediocre water quality, however cities like San Francisco and Albuquerque whose water is incredibly contaminated poses a threat to pregnant women, children, elderly and those with immune deficiency. The National Resource Defense Council tested the quality of water supplies across 17 different cities. These cities included Chicago, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Manchester, New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C, Albuquerque, Boston, Fresno, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The water quality of these cities ranged from excellent to poor. Contaminants such as lead, pathogens, byproducts from Chlorine treatments, and Carcinogens were found reoccurring in many of the water supplies of the nation’s cities. High levels of lead can cause permanent brain damage and enters water stores through aging pipes. Pathogens, germs, in water can pose health concerns especially for kids, the elderly, immune deficient, and pregnant women. By products from the chlorinating process like trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids can cause cancer or fertility problems such as miscarriages. Carcinogens such as arsenic, which contaminates the water of 100 million Americans and radioactive radon, 20 million Americans, can also cause serious health problems. If these major, dangerous contaminants lie in much of Americans water, often at high levels this can cause serious concerns for the American public, especially those not educated about the importance of water filtering. [|Click to find out more about the health of your water] __Part 2—The origin of the contaminates in water:__ There are various way that these chemicals get into the water supplies of the United States’ water stores. Not all water is potable, safe for drinking, but that which is must undergo careful monitoring process at water plants. Most of these plants are looking for microorganisms as opposed to chemicals, which can be equally as harmful. These chemicals can enter our water stores through runoff, animal waste, sewage, pesticides and industrial pollution, mining waste, hazardous waste sites, spills of petroleum, as well as naturally released contaminants. More specifically lead enters our water through old pipes. Arsenic is naturally occurring, but is also from mining and the industrial process. Radioactive radon enters our water through farming pesticides. Pathogens are naturally occurring microscopic protozoan, and trihalomethanes and haloecetic acids enter through the chlorination, or cleaning process. There are various ways that these chemicals can enter our water, often due to lack of regulation and concern for the health of our water, as well as the effect that contaminants have on the people who drink it. [|Click for a longer list of contaminants] __Part 3—What can we do?:__ In order to protect the health of our nation and our water supplies we must invest in a better infrastructure, safeguard our sources, increase regulation, upgrade our treatment facilities as well as educate the public about filtering water. Firstly we see that many of the contaminants that enter our water due so through aging pipes. The majority of the pipes providing water to our cities are over a century old, when building codes and materials were much different. These pipes are not strong enough to handle today’s loads and spills. We see that the longer we wait to modernize our infrastructure the more it will deteriorate, funneling increasingly harmful pollutants into our drinking water. Although fully repairing the nation’s infrastructure will cost anywhere from 243 to 402 billion dollars, it is extremely important for safety of water and further the American public. There is also a lack of regulation on the treatment of water, yet support for new standards in continually declining. The Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for the amount of chemicals legally allowed to lie in people’s drinking water are far too high. Arsenic contaminates over 22 million Americans drinking water, but the quantity of the arsenic is below standard. However being below the national standard for contaminants does not mean that the water is safe. Therefore, regulation of treatment and contaminant standards must be stricter to begin dealing with the problems of water contamination. People can also test for chemicals using [|home filters]. Filters range in price from 30 to 2,000 dollars, however people must begin to exercise the “right to know” reports, where the quality of water is reported on regularly to let people know if their water is safe. __Conclusion:__ Many contaminants have made their way into this nation’s water supply, which is putting the American people at risk. They enter through a variety of sources but through increased regulation of standards and treatment as well as modernization of infrastructure we can make water safer for everyone!