The issue on having an abundant supply of clean water has been one of the major frontiers of environmental advocacy since the early 1950s as the globe now feels the consequences of man’s quest for technology and improvement. Global Warming and Pollution are two of the most prominent issues on the environment that affects two of the important resources human kind now slowly reduces – air and water. Water is the fountain of life as it sustains every living organism with nutrients needed for development. Like air, living organisms depend on water to provide nutrients and energy. In the United States, water supply and sources have been neglected by the public as the American public continued to contaminate these sources with waste, without considering the effects of contaminated food in the entire organism chain. With the consequences of continuous water contamination and pollution rampant in the developing region, it is important for the United States to impose laws and policies strictly in ensuring the quality of water in the country as it not only affects humans but also the other living organisms that depend on water for life and energy.
Keywords: water pollution, us water pollution, us water protection
I. Introduction
A. Like air, clear water abundance and supply is rapidly drying out as pollution and the excessive heat removes the life out of main bodies of water, affecting not only humans, but also other living organisms such as animals, plants, and the soil.
B. Thesis Statement: In the issue of clean water supply and abundance, the United States government should issue strict laws against water pollution because it contaminates agriculture, causes human diseases, and poisons animals.
II. Water Pollution in the US
A. The US has 2,800,000 miles worth of water sources around the country; however half of these water sources are considered impaired due to water pollution.
B. The nature of US water pollution has begun since the early 19th century and caused various waterborne diseases and complications for humans, plants and animals. US water pollution records also notes that water pollutants had already caused damage to the US water supply, making it hard to rehabilitate these impaired sources.
C. The federal government immediately enacted several laws to protect life and prevent further damage from water pollution such as the Water Pollution Control Act, the Water Pollution Act Amendments, and the Clean Water Act. However, these acts were still unable to sustain the cases of pollution happening in the country.
III. Conclusion
The protection of the environment has been one of the major advocacies of the international community since the advocacy of protecting the Earth’s natural resources and adherence to the creation of environment-friendly products had garnered the support of the public. Global Warming and Pollution in various forms have made the public conscious of the effects of these environmental problems to the community and now push for pro-environment policies to withhold the effect of these problems for the future generation. Like air, clear water abundance and supply is rapidly drying out as pollution and the excessive heat removes the life out of main bodies of water, affecting not only humans, but also other living organisms such as animals, plants, and the soil. In the United States, many factories and citizens opt to throw their waste in bodies of water, contaminating them for any possible consumption. For a country like the US who has advocated for environmental reform, the country still maintains the position as one of the major pollutant producers in the globe after China. In the issue of clean water supply and abundance, the United States government should issue strict laws against water pollution because it contaminates agriculture, causes human diseases, and poisons animals.
Throughout the past decades, the US had originally disregarded the importance of clean water as citizens have used waterways and bodies of water as another medium to place their wastes. Water pollution has been rampant in the US as the country continued to develop as a superpower. Even though the US has already enforced strategies to stop the continuous destruction of the bodies of water in the country, the notable effects of disregard in bodies of water in the US have appeared in various assessments of the country’s environmental According to the assessment in 1998 by the federal government for the Environmental Protection Agency report for the US Congress, the US has 2,800,000 miles of rivers and streams scattered around the country. The assessment noted that a third of the 2,800,000 miles of water are contaminated with various microbes and chemicals, while the 10 percent was noted to be clear from threat, but it is almost on the verge of impairment. The US also has 41 million acres of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, but most of these lakes have been noted as impaired, while 9 percent is on the verge of being impaired if the government does not act on protecting these bodies of water.
The EPA report has also summed up “the majority of the Americans living in the country live within ten miles of a polluted water body”. Americans also use 77,500 million gallons of underground or groundwater each day. Groundwater is used in various activities such as crop irrigation, livestock, and drinking water for almost 46% of the entire American population. With the EPA’s report noting that half of the country’s water resources are impaired, the EPA notes that even groundwater contamination is rampant in the US. The country also has 50% of its population that depend on underground water sources stored for use in aquifers. Dependence in groundwater in the US is prominent in several rural areas. With the contamination of groundwater in most states in the country, scientists estimated that the federal government would have to flush out billions of dollars to clean the contamination and it would take decades to complete.
Since most of the US wastes have been dumped in waterways, the trash that has been accumulated would be transferred to other areas through the water current and tides, thereby contaminating the other bodies of water in nearby regions. This trend has constantly influenced the US water supply in the early decades, causing many states and communities to lose important water supplies. Since the end of the 19th century, waterborne diseases have slowly been a concern by many urban US cities. Water treatment has been done since the early 20th century as typhoid death rates due to water contamination and pollution had caused 158 deaths in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Concerns regarding waterborne diseases and the rampant increase of water pollution had already moved up to the federal level as the government sees the increase of waterborne related casualties increase since the 1890s. The government immediately enacted the Interstate Quarantine Act of 1893 which prohibits the use of common cups for train passengers to share drinks with others. Drinking water standards were also enforced by the US federal government to ensure states would provide tested and contamination-free drinking water to the population. The initial result of the strengthened drinking water standards had managed to reduce the number of cases caused by waterborne diseases. However, the numbers have steadily increased since 1951 as the early drafts of the drinking water act could no longer cover the entire country. The US then passed the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 to conform the rest of the country into a unified standard of drinking water .
However, the damage of decade’s water pollution in the US water supply still notes that the country has already lost half of its resources. The EPA report supports this fact as the 1998 report noted the US water bodies to be impaired due to neglect from the public and the government. Contaminated water has also caused several waterborne diseases to contract in the region such as amoebiasis, giardiasis, cyclosporiasis, and cholera. Contaminated water would also constitute to the development of disease causing organisms that could multiply and mutate once it interacts with the other organisms found in the contaminated water. Aside from the typical cholera and amoebiasis infliction, the United States had shared the consequences of contaminated water as seen in the 1993 Milwaukee Crisis. Almost 400,000 people had been infected by a waterborne disease that came from the parasite known as the Cryptosporidium. The parasite is commonly found in cattle, and causing gastrointestinal to debilitating complications which can be life-threatening if not immediately remedied. The problem with the Cryptosporidium parasite is the fact that it has the capacity to withstand extreme heat from boiling, therefore enabling it to survive even if sterilized. The nature of the Cryptosporidium is not unusual in the current context, especially in the US as the contamination of bodies of water correspond to toxic chemicals being thrown without warning. Scientists have even discovered new strains of parasites and viruses that are immune from any form of sterilization. Reviving these contaminated bodies of water would take decades to return to its normal state and revival of these bodies of waters would depend on the concentration of toxins and chemicals from the waterbed up to the entire water framework .
Water-based products such as fertilizers, poisons, and even regular household items have also attributed to the US’ problem on water pollution as chemicals are also capable of contaminating the soil, removing the nutrients needed by crops and organisms to grow and sustain life. In each time crops are harvested from fields, the soil erodes and loses its nutrients thus the need to use fertilizers to revitalize the soil. However, as this process takes place, some of the water that combines with the fertilizer would erode into the waterways and interfere in the growth of the organisms living in the seas and oceans. Water contaminated by chemicals would be unsuitable if they are ingested by marine organisms as several marine organisms are regularly exposed to water. There are also chances that pre-existing crops would acquire the poisonous traits of the chemicals they sip from the soil, making it a medium for disease and complications to arise to those who eat it. As irrigation is done on fields, water evaporates due to heat, retaining salts which turn solid upon being dried. Once these salts accumulate in the fields, the surface of the field would become salty, causing plants to have difficulties penetrating the soil to sip nutrients. The cycle would then continue as irrigation would continuously deplete the natural water supply of the fields and suck up the remaining supply of underground water, which takes years to form .
Water contamination in the US or in any part of the globe has also shown great effects on animals as pollutants can inflict eye and respiratory complications animals. Although scientists had used animals to identify the nature of pollutants in both air and water which also affects humans, the complexities of their inflictions are no less different than those acquired by man when they are contaminated or infected by the pollutant. In the United States, water pollutants not only harbour danger to marine life by killing their organisms they eat, but also kill them immediately through poisoning. Reports of fish kill due to municipal and industrial wastes have been recorded around the country even at present. As the water gets contaminated by various chemicals and wastes, it also becomes unfit for farm animals, which are normally turned into meat for food.
In the United States, the issue of water pollution has immediately been addressed since 1948 upon the enactment of the Water Pollution Control Act, concentrating on protecting human health and powers to implement policies to ensure the reduction of water pollution in the state. The US Surgeon General is also authorized by the WPCA to establish programs that would connect with other government agencies in approaching the issue of water pollution. However, the WPCA had not produced the intended results the government estimated in the problem of water pollution, and was therefore amended twice in 1956 and 1966. The amended WPCA was then called as the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1956 and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments or the FWPCA of 1961. Both amendments increased the capacity of the government in directly calling for specific actions in water pollution management, but, it has reduced the capacity of the Congress in enforcing water pollution measures in interstate waters . The US Federal Government was alarmed over the lack of water supply around the country as the US had large waterways and bodies of water that could serve the population. Upon seeing the volatile state of the country’s waterways and sewage facilities, the US federal government immediately funded thousands of sewage treatment facilities to clean out the waste water that has accumulated in various parts of the US . The government has also enacted the Clean Water Act of 1972, which immediately improved the US water quality standards of the country up to the present.
Under the Clean Water Act, almost 94% of the entire American population now has access to quality tested water facilities for their drinking and consumption uses. There were also improvements in the recovery of 60% of the impaired US bodies of water which could now be used by fishermen and citizens for sports, leisure or business. Sewage treatment facilities have also increased around the country thanks to the Clean Water Act. The number of sewage treatment facilities now corresponds to the proportion of the entire US population up to 74% from its usual 32%. Wetlands no longer dry up each year thanks to the CWA as wetland losses have decreased up to 80% as compared to earlier years.
However, despite the benefits given by the CWA to the US, EPA has still discovered in 2006 that 45% of the country’s water supply is still impaired by contamination which would put humans, animals, and plants in jeopardy if it is not remedied immediately. The EPA has also noted that the country’s industrial and wastewater programs in each state have now exceeded its limit and it is possible that the discharge of these facilities would double the effects of water pollution to the environment. In 2009, the US government had to face controversies pertaining to the legalities of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act as the New York Times reported states which have violated these two acts. As a result of the failure of states to conform to the standards set by the two water acts, released wastewater and contaminated water now affects 49 million Americans around the country .
As part of the environmental initiative in providing the next generation with clean and abundant supply of water and air, the US has already ensured to the world that it is ready to lead the fight to protect the Earth’s most important natural resources that is now being threatened by man’s constant thirst for development. Although it has already enacted several laws and policies to ensure the safety of the public in terms of water pollution in the country, the United States still has areas that have not been reached out such as the impoverished areas that depend on water for the majority of their everyday living. There is still the lingering damages caused by the early neglect by the US public over several bodies of water in the country, and revival efforts are still uncertain as the US has constantly changed and amended most of its environmental policies to conform to the developments of society. It is important for the United States to strictly impose the policies to reduce the effects of water pollution as the nature of bacteria and diseases coming from contaminated water are now capable of withstanding any form of vaccine and medication. Continuous usage of chemicals also affects the US water supply as people have to use chemicals to prevent the outbreak of pests and other bacteria on crop and lifestyle, these chemicals containing toxic substances that could cause additional complications if ingested. A stricter and more flexible water protection law in the United States would be able to address the sentiments pertaining to the nature of outbreaks of water pollution-related diseases and complications, as well as the safety of the future generation to access clean and safe water for their consumption and for activities that require water.
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