Essay on Water Pollution in the USA

At this particular time in history in which the world is battling the acute pollution levels ranging from the waters to the air, The United States of America the world's greatest economy by both gross domestic product and purchasing power parity, faces a great danger on diminishing levels of fresh water, a predicament poised by several factors. This paper thus seeks to consultative and comprehensively explore and explain in detail the extent of water pollution in the United States and the necessary measures employed to curb the problem.

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The inception of a study into pollution

Without healthy water for drinking, cooking, fishing and even farming the human race would perish. Clean water is equally a great necessity for recreational interests such as swimming, boating, and even skiing. When Congress took the bold move and began assessing national water quality during the early 1970s, the findings of the report indicated that a vast portion of the surface water was either contaminated or severely compromised.

The actual meaning of water pollution and the different sources of water

Water pollution quite often implies that some harm has been done to the sea, stream, lake or whatever other wellspring of water. Fortunately, the earth is forgiving and often the damage was done to the water is often reversible. Not all of the earth's water sit on the surface. A great deal of water is held underground rock structures called aquifers, of course, which are not necessarily visible to our naked eyes. This type of water found underground is called groundwater. Quite often than not, people tend to associate water pollution with surface water only forgetting that serious damage usually occurs to the water that is located underground. Aquifers feed the rivers and provide some of our drinking water in various forms Groundwater pollution is much less obvious as compared to surface water pollution, but is no less a problem, which when not taken care of soon becomes another pain in the neck to man for very obvious reasons. In 1996, a review in Iowa in the Assembled States found that over a large portion of the states ground wells were contaminated with weed killers (Wagner 26).

The main water pollutants in the US

Studies conducted by various researchers insisted that the three primary sources of water pollution in the US include industry, agriculture, and municipalities had been regularly discharging harmful materials into the water supplies throughout the country over some years. These harmful chemicals included organic wastes, sediments, minerals, nutrients, thermal pollutants, toxic chemicals among other dangerous substances. Natural wastes are delivered by creatures and people and incorporate things such as fecal matter, crop debris, yard clippings, food wastes, rubber, used plastic, wooden materials, disposable diapers and any other none- biodegradable substances carelessly disposed of in the water surfaces. Such wastes undergo complex chemical reactions in decomposing process. The harmful chemicals are depriving of the aquatic organisms oxygen due to their increased concentration which in turn hikes the competition for the available oxygen causing the death of aquatic organisms.

Toxic chemicals and different risky materials show the most inevitable danger to the nature of any given water source. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized 582 very dangerous chemicals which are created, produced and put away in areas over the Assembled States. Some synthetic plants burn lethal waste, which produces risky by-items like furans and chlorinated dioxins, two of the most destructive cancer-causing agents known to mankind. Different perilous materials are either delivered or put away by family units (engine oil, radiator fluid, paints and pesticides), cleaners (chlorinated solvents), and ranches (bug sprays, fungicides, rodenticides, gas stations and even airports (fuel) This pollution has so much escalated that water quality reports indicate that 45% of the US streams, 47% of lakes and 32 percent of bays are polluted (Jhon254).

Whereas many parts of the world face major challenges due to inaccessibility and the limitedness of freshwater availability, a significant amount of the fresh water resources in the US is contaminated by pollutants from the industry, farming and energy generation among other activities. The Mississippi River, for instance, conveys an expected 1.5 million metric huge amounts of nitrogen contamination into the Inlet of Mexico every year, making a "no man's land" in the Bay every late spring about the span of New Jersey (Chambers89).

Industrial Activities

Industrial facilities keep on dumping a large number of pounds of dangerous chemicals into America's waterways, streams, lakes and sea water every year-representing an awesome risk both to the earth and human prosperity. As indicated by the EPA, contamination from modern offices is in charge of debilitating or fouling water quality in more than 10000 miles of rivers and more than 200000 acres of lakes, ponds and estuaries nationwide (Ross2). The continued release of monstrous volumes of toxic chemicals into the nation's waterways shows that the nation for sure is in dire need of putting a lot of measures in place to reduce the damages done not only to the environment but also to the human health so as to safeguard the citizens' health.

By the federal governments Toxic Release Inventory, industrial facilities dumped a purported cumulative 232 million pounds of chemicals that are toxic into American waterways in 2007 alone, accounting for an approximate 2.9 percent of world water pollution. This is a figure that raised a lot of eye brows especially regarding the lives of the future generations in the eroded globe. Toxic chemicals were discharged to more than 1900 waterways in all the 50 states. The Ohio River ranked first for toxic discharges in 2007, followed by the New River and the Mississippi River (Arjen 35-48).

Nitrate compounds- which can bring about genuine medical issues in babies if found in drinking water which contributes to oxygen depleted "dead zones" in waterways are by the largest toxic release regarding overall volume (Chapagain 42).

There have been a great deal toxic wastes discharged to waterways in the US in particular between the years 2003 and 2012 mostly attributed to the massively increased industrial activity and reduced level of care by the majority of the people involved in industrial activities. There has been an issue in the slackness of the authorities entrusted with the mandate of controlling and regulating industrial wastes emission. The government has also to bear part of the blame for having not enacted appropriate legislation and not even in time to help curb the great concern of environmental pollution.

Industrial activities have by far and wide led in the pollution of water sources and sadly even reports from sources across the country show that a monstrous amount of toxins associated with growth l disorders were emitted into more than 1200 waterways. The Alabama River discharged the most of the said growth inhibitors, then Verdigris River in Kansas and finally in the third position came Oklahoma and the Mississippi River (Patterson 1985).

Moreover, approximately one hundred and thirty-three tons of chemicals associated with the genital disorders were dumped into to more than 1150 waterways. The Ohio River suffered the most effect by accumulating the largest share of named hazardous chemicals closely followed by the Verdigris River and in close third position the Mississippi River (McLachlan319-341).

Agricultural pollution

Unwanted discharge of toxic wastes during agricultural practices also is found to be causing a lot of havoc to our water sources thus also proving very difficult for the aquatic life. Some of the agrochemicals include organ chlorines and phthalates are also reported to have wisely covered some of the water sources important to man. Secure practices by the agricultural based industries should, therefore, be endorsed to foster the safety of the waters and to play a big role in reducing the effects of these organic and inorganic substances plus many other lethal substances to Americas water sources. The society should strive so much hard to keep their environment clean and safeguard the lives of Mother Nature and the ecosystem to remain balanced as if nothing has ever happened.

Pollution by domestic sewage

In addition to the pollution of waterways by industrial emissions, domestic sewage also plays a bigger role in the overall statistics of water pollution in the US. Domestic wastes often arise from wastes from the kitchen, toilets, from the reared animals and also livestock. Unknowingly, many households commit this type of atrocity that eventually harms them in the form of global warming that directly is attributed to environmental pollution. Toxic substances from domestic sewage often dissolve in water bodies and either become suspended on the surface of these water sources or even remain deposited on the sea bed. The resulting water pollution leads to the deterioration of the initial quality of the water source therefore greatly interfering with the aquatic ecosystems. Pollutants may also seep downwards, a very dangerous move meaning that there are chances of interfering with the ground water deposits.

Eutrophication

Human-induced eutrophication also has to a greater contributed to the mass pollution of the environment in the US. Eutrophication interferes with the original value of freshwater systems across the world simply by reducing water quality and to add salt to the injury, reverses the economic system structure and function. Comparing current total nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in the soil for the states alone, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated the values as over seventy percent of the current rivers exceeding the current reference median values. In estimating the likely losses are accruing from the recreational use of water, real estate, expenditure on the recovery of endangered and threatened species summing to a combined cost of over two billion dollars annually as a result of eutrophication in the US freshwaters. (Dodd 12-19)

Pollution of Americas beaches

It saddens to note that about 10 percent of America's beaches fail to meet the federal benchmark for what constitutes safe swimming water. Regionally, the Incomparable Lakes demonstrated the most elevated amount of dirtied shorelines, trailed by the Inlet Drift, New Britain, and the Western Coast. The locales with the most reduced level of contamination were the Delmarva region, the Southeast and the New York_- New Jersey. Of the considerable number of states, Ohio was the individual state with the most astounding rate of disappointment in its shorelines with seven beaches on the "repeat offenders" list (Ringquist1148-1165)

Amazing facts and figures of pollution in the USA

Some amazing facts about pollution in the US indicate that over one million gallons of toxic groundwater, sewage, and industrial waste are discharged into the waters annually. Moreover, septic systems are failing around the country causing the untreated waste material to flow freely into streams, rivers, and lakes. In addition to that, it is estimated that approximately seventy-three kinds of pesticides have been found in the US, groundwater that ends up in the citizens' drinks unless filtered well. Much to our dismay, Americans are reported to be using over two billion pounds worth of pesticides consistently which in the end washes into the streams and lakes.

Remedies to water pollution in the USA...