Water Pollution

[harmosnmith]

Water is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. The human body is anywhere from 55% to 78% water depending on body size. To function properly, the body requires between one and seven liters of water per day to avoid dehydration
All known forms of life depend on water. Because of overpopulation, mass consumption, misuse, and water pollution, the availability of drinking water per capita is inadequate and shrinking as of the year 2006.

40% of America's rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
Even worse are America's lakes—46% are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually. The US EPA has warned that sewage levels in rivers could be back to the super-polluted levels of the 1970s by the year 2016.
Asian rivers are the most polluted in the world. They have three times as many bacteria from human waste as the global average and 20 times more lead than rivers in industrialized countries

Serious water pollution incidents increased by 50% in England and Wales last year with farmers responsible for more than a quarter of them, the Environment Agency says.

I made this Thread to increase knowledge about water pollution such as industrial water pollution and to share thoughts about how to prevent it.

[Richard]

Water Framework Directive

[Karl]

Originally Posted by harmosnmith

Even worse are America's lakes—46% are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually. The US EPA has warned that sewage levels in rivers could be back to the super-polluted levels of the 1970s by the year 2016.

On the topic of water pollution in North American lakes, and its effects on the environmental chemistry and ecology
---> Biologists find new environmental threat in North American lakes

[Karl]

Chemicals Remain in Most Treated Water: USGS Study

From World of Water Treatment - December 07, 2008

A report released by the U.S. Geological Survey has revealed that "low levels" of about 130 man-made chemicals are not removed by public treatment processes. The USGS study involved sampling and analysis of water from nine selected rivers used as sources for public water, with testing both before and after the water had been subjected to public treatment processes.

According to the Water Quality Association (WQA), a not-for-profit alliance of water treatment companies, filtering systems in the home, as a final contaminant barrier, provide the highest technologies available for treatment of drinking water. While utilities are required to meet safety standards set by the U.S. EPA, these "point-of-use" systems are the considered to be the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly (especially for emerging contaminants), since less than 2% of of all water consumed is injested.

Source: World of Water Treatment.com - News - Chemicals Remain in Most Treated Water

[ChristieCakes]

The fish are acting funny because they’re on Prozac.

In the U.S., more than 200 million prescriptions for antidepressants are given out every year. A lot of the contents of those pills eventually end up in our water supply, either from patients’ excretions or from pills flushed down the toilet. Since water treatment plants aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals, we’re effectively medicating our streams and rivers.

Chemists have found that water downstream of water treatment plants holds a veritable medicine cabinet worth of antidepressants, including venlafaxine, bupropion (Wellbutrin), citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft).

The concentrations of antidepressants in the water—billionths of a gram per liter—aren’t enough to affect larger species, but they are enough to make small fish and fish babies feel woozy. Researcher Meghan McGee tested the effect of antidepressants on young minnows by exposing unhatched and newly-hatched minnows to levels of antidepressants commonly found downstream of water treatment plants. The drugged minnows appeared lethargic and took twice as long to react to stimulus, making them much more vulnerable to predators.

McGee then upped the dosage of antidepressants to see how they would affect fish that feed on minnows, such as hybrid striped bass. When the concentration was increased to several millionths of a gram per liter, the bass spiraled into a drug-induced haze and exhibited some really weird behavior. Some hung around vertically in their tanks, others skimmed the surface with half of their backs exposed in the air (even though they are normally a bottom-dwelling species). They lost their usually voracious appetites and ignored the minnows that swam around them. The males took on feminine characteristics, loosing their masculine facial bumps and growing yolk protein.

In humans, many antidepressants (allegedly) work by altering levels of serotonin in the brain, but some also function like the sex hormone estrogen. It’s not clear how the drugs are working in the fish, but it’s clear all that Prozac isn’t doing them much good. Meanwhile, some communities have begun drug disposal campaigns that collect unused drugs to be incinerated instead of flushed into the water supply.